Officials of two key education agencies in Abia State have dismissed allegations that monitoring teams storm schools during examinations to extort money from authorities.
Ucheoma Kanu, Director of the Examination Development Center (EDC) Umuahia, said no school is under any obligation to give money to monitoring officers.
“Even if ten different teams visit your school, your responsibility as a school is simply to allow them to do their jobs and leave. Nobody is to be given anything,” Kanu stressed, adding that many officers carry out their duties with integrity.
The Secondary Education Management Board (SEMB) also disassociated itself from the claims. In a statement by its Head of Information and Public Relations, D. N. Onuoha, the Director, Ngozi Ugo Onwubiko, clarified that SEMB has no supervisory authority over private schools.
“Our mandate is strictly to oversee public secondary schools under the state government. We do not go to private schools, not even during examinations. Any insinuation to the contrary is false and misleading,” the statement read.
The board further explained that its monitoring role is restricted to ensuring compliance with government policies in public schools, verifying revenue remittances by principals, and supervising external examination officials to prevent misconduct. It emphasized that SEMB officials use government vehicles for such duties, not tricycles, as alleged.
The rebuttals follow allegations that multiple monitoring teams from various education bodies often besiege private schools during examinations to demand “settlements.” The claims also raised broader concerns about the welfare of private school teachers, financial burdens on school owners, and dissatisfaction with the conduct of promotion exams by the EDC.
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