Parents of private schools students in Ogun State are poised for a showdown with Governor Dapo Abiodun over the proposed N25,000 levy per student to undertake the COVID-19 test before resumption on Tuesday.
Hundreds of parents, on Sunday, staged a protest against the demand.
The government said it would bear the full cost of the test for boarding Senior Secondary Three (SS3) students in public schools.
It asked private school owners to ensure that their boarding pupils are certified COVID-19-negative.
The state said it negotiated a discount in the cost of COVID-19 test with some healthcare service providers, but that parents were free to use others.
Hundreds of parents and their wards who visited the 54gene COVID-19 Mobile Laboratory located within the state-owned MTR Specialist Hospital in Abeokuta, the state capital, were asked to pay N25,000 per pupil.
The angry parents blocked the hospital gate, insisting their children should be tested free like their counterparts in public schools.
Vice-Chairman, Parent Teachers Association (PTA) of the Taidob College, Abeokuta, Dr Kehinde Sanwo, said the pupils should be treated equally.
“The parents here are good citizens of Ogun State. We are taxpayers.
“When we arrived, we were told to pay N25,000, whereas, some people who arrived earlier paid nothing.
“We don’t know where the decision came from. Some of us have more than two children. Why this segregation?”
