A bill that recommends a fine of N50,000 to parents who default in providing primary and secondary education to their children has passed first reading at the Senate.
The bill titled, ‘Compulsory free Universal Basic Education Act 2004, Section 2’ and proposed by Senator Orji Kalu states that every government in Nigeria shall provide free, compulsory and universal basic education for every child of primary and junior secondary school age.
It also states that every parents shall ensure that their child attends and completes primary and junior secondary school education; adding that stakeholders in education in a local government area shall ensure that every parent or person who has the custody of a child performs the duty imposed on him/her under section 2(2) of the Act.
The act further noted that a parent who contravenes the earlier prescription should be liable, on the first conviction, to be reprimanded.
A fine of N2,000 or imprisonment for a term of one month or both has been recommended on a second conviction, and a fine of N5,000 or imprisonment for a term of two months or to both on subsequent conviction.
However, the Senate in its amendment, proposed N50,000 fines, instead of the N5,000 previously stated in the Act.
“Section (4) (b) of the Principal Act is amended by deleting N2,000 and inserting N20,000. Section (4) (c) of the Principal Act is amended by deleting N5,000 and inserting N50,000. Section 3(2) is amended by deleting N10,000 and inserting N100,000,” the amendment stated.
While the Act states that ‘Any person who receives or obtains any fee contrary to the provisions of subsection (1) of this section commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding N10,000 or imprisonment for a term of three months or to both’, the Senate proposed, N100,000 in replacement of the N10,000.
The Red Chamber also recommended free meals for every child in the country.
Responding to the development, the Programme Coordinator for Basic Education at Reform Education, Nigeria, Ayodamola Oluwatoyin, in an interview with PUNCH, commended the move by the lawmakers while he stressed the need for an investigation into the additional charges by the public schools in the country.
