Examination Development Centre, EDC, and Secondary Education Management Board, SEMB, Abia State have denied some allegations that their monitoring teams routinely invade schools during examinations to demand money from school authorities.
Ucheoma Kanu, Director in charge of the Examination Development Center, EDC, Umuahia, stated that no school is mandated to pay any 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 said.
Similarly, the Secondary Education Management Board (SEMB) distanced itself from the claims, saying that its teams operate with vehicles, not tricycles as being alleged.
In a statement issued through the Head of Information and Public Relations in SEMB, D. N. Onuoha, the Director in charge, Ngozi Ugo Onwubiko, clarified that SEMB has no supervisory role 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 clarifications came after circulating allegations that multiple monitoring teams from the Ministry of Education, local government education authorities, SEMB, and other bodies had invaded private schools during examinations to collect money.
Some claims suggested that as many as four teams could arrive in a single day, sometimes entering examination halls and demanding “settlements”, among other claims.
