- say policy not current administration’s original concept
- It’s another exploitation – Parents
Stakeholders in the education sector have faulted the recently-introduced insurance scheme for students across the 104 Unity Schools in the country, saying the Federal Government was only rehashing an old scheme that was started by the immediate past administration.
The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, while announcing the scheme recently, had claimed that the insurance scheme for all Federal Government-owned secondary schools in Nigeria, was an official policy of the current President Muhammadu Buhari administration and had specifically noted that the insurance cover “for our unity schools has become the official policy of the Federal Government.”
However, some parents and other stakeholders, who spoke to our Correspondent in separate interviews on the new scheme, questioned the authenticity of the scheme being the official policy of the current Federal Government.
The scheme has been on since the time of former President Goodluck Jonathan and the incumbent Government was only bringing it up as a political tool to allegedly exploit money from parents to campaign for President Buhari in the forthcoming general election
Some of the parents who had pupils and those who still have pupils in the Unity Schools, claimed that the scheme has been on since the time of former President Goodluck Jonathan and the incumbent Government was just bringing it up as a political tool to allegedly exploit money from parents to campaign for President Buhari in the forthcoming general election. According to them, that was the same way the scheme was introduced during the end of Jonathan’s administration allegedly to raise funds for his re-election.
The Jonathan administration had introduced the scheme with NICON, an insurance company, as the underwriter, around December 2014, the pre-election year of the 2015 polls. Students in the 104 Unity Schools across the country were mandated to pay a contributory fee of N5,000 which was collected by some of the schools without any official document or policy while the parents teachers associations of a few schools refused to pay.
“The Federal Government, in its continuous effort to boost the education sector, irrespective of the security challenges in the country, has set out to insure 125,000 students from 104 unity schools around the country.
“NICON Insurance Plc has been contracted to spearhead the scheme aimed at insuring the lives of students, especially since schools have now become the focal target of the extremist Islamic sect, Boko Haram.
“To this effect, a sum of N5, 000 is to be paid by each pupil for insurance premium per annum and this is expected to amount to N625 million premiums for the insurers,” a statement to that effect had said.
Likewise, the Buhari administration introduced the same insurance scheme in November just about the time Nigeria is approaching the election year, 2019.
The question many of the parents are now asking is: where the money for the old insurance scheme went and why is the government bringing up the scheme at this period once again?
A parent from Federal Science and Technical College, Yaba, Lagos State, who spoke on condition of anonymity described the scheme as another ponzi scheme to exploit the parents in a desperate bid to raise funds for Buhari’s re-election.
“Did they compensate the parents of the children who died at Queens College, Lagos during that period? As far as I know, they were not . The truth of the matter is that the scheme was a ploy to compensate Jimoh Ibahim, the Chairman of NICON, for the money he spent for Jonathan’s re-election; that’s why they gave the contract to him (NICON). We were forced to pay in my son’s school and nothing happened to him nor myself. Now, the Buhari government is claiming that the policy is their project, but it is not theirs, ” the parent said.
Another parent, who also pleaded anonymity, said he had her daughter at the Federal Government College, Odogbolu, Ogun State, when the scheme was introduced by the former administration. He said the PTA of FGC Odogbolu bluntly refused to pay for the controversial insurance scheme and stood their ground on that though he said they were aware that some other schools paid.
“I remember vovidly that we had a PTA chairperson who insisted that we were not going to pay the exploitative fee and we had to send some representatives to Abuja over the matter.
“We are not supposed to pay money as Parents Teachers Association but because the Government refused to give subvention as at when due. We always fall short in times of feeding , so the parents had to take it up. It was a double expense, we were paying school fees, augmenting subvention fund that the government failed to provide. Why should we pay for insurance cover?” he said.
In the same vein, a parent from Kings College, Lagos, Mrs. Betty Akinwale, said that her son who graduated from the school, paid the money mandatorily as it was included in the school
fees.
According to her, she has another son there (Kings College) currently who will now have to pay the money. She said she was not sure if the insurance scheme for her son who had graduated from the school will cover this present
one.
Their reactions came as other parents questioned why the Federal Government will pay for the scheme and is still demanding that students pay N5, 000 each for insurance.
Adamu, while announcing the scheme, had explained that three insurance underwriters had been enlisted, to whom the government would pay a whopping N198m.
According to the Minister of Education, three underwriters had been engaged for the insurance cover.
“The government has engaged insurance underwriters and brokers for the provision of the following class of insurance –Comprehensive Fire and General Peril cover for Buildings and Content of the 104 Federal Unity Colleges.
“Three insurance underwriters were appointed along with the brokers. Each of the underwriters will cover schools in the two zones (one zone from the North and the other zone from the South). The total Premium to be paid to the three underwriters and brokers is N198m only for the 104 Federal Unity Colleges”, Adamu had said.
However, the names of the underwriters were not disclosed, a situation that leaves the parents wondering as to who these underwriters are, just as others are asking whether the new insurance project was bought and the other one
dismissed
While insurance analysts agree that the Federal Government could engage a new underwriter for the same insurance scheme for a different administration, The Point was told that the underwriter (NICON) during Good luck Jonathan’s term may not be the same as that of President Buhari.
“Underwriters evaluate the risk and exposures of potential clients to be insured. They decide how much coverage the client should receive, how much they should pay for it, or whether even to accept the risk and insure them,” an analyst, Mr. Ben Odunsi, told our correspondent .
According to the analyst, government do not always like to tread the lane of the past government, so they adopt their own underwriters.
The question now is, what happened to the money paid by parents during Good luck Jonathan’s term though NICON said it paid claims to 40 unity schools out of the 104 Unity Schools in Nigeria after years of its coverage.
“NICON Insurance Ltd, said it has paid claims on its Students Welfare Insurance Scheme to about 40 students from Unity Colleges across Nigeria who lost their parents, ” a local publication had reported in the heat of the controversy over the old scheme.
Meanwhile, the National Chairman, King’s College Parents Teacher Association, Mr. Yinka Oduntan, said they were still watching the government before taking actions.
“I cannot comment on this scheme yet because I do not understand what the Government is doing. For now, until I get a clearer picture of this scheme before we would do something as PTA,” Oduntan told The Point.
