The increasing price of goods and services has found its way into the end-of-year party fees for primary and secondary school children.

The end of the year party is a celebration of the achievements of school authorities, staff and pupils, or students, ending well with the year.

These pupils/students are usually charged moderate fees as a means of raising funds to buy gift items, food and drinks and other necessities for the party.

Many parents and children always look forward to such parties, as this enables them to flaunt their new attires, brilliance and wealth.

It was discovered that many parents, who are already burdened with expenses for Christmas celebrations, school accessories, and next term school fees, shunned this year?s party.

Even children are not left out of declining attendance at such parties.

Further investigation showed that most schools increased their party fees by over 50 per cent, making it impossible for parents with two to three children to pay.

Mrs. Folakemi Ifaleke, a banker said: ?These school authorities think parents pluck money from trees.

How can you increase party money from N5,000 per child to N15,000? Isn?t that terrible?

?Yes, we know things are expensive but you need to do things reasonably.

?If you add N3,000 to the previous fee making it N8,000 it would have been better.

?I have three sons going to this school, and they expect me to spend N45,000 on a party.

?I just told my boys to pick between Christmas clothes and the party. They gladly picked the latter. They even told me they weren?t interested because many pupils didn?t turn up with payment.?

On his part, Mr. Jerry Nwokoma, a motor parts trader said: ?In my children?s school, they were asked to pay N20,000 each.

?I have two girls and two boys.

The other two are in the Secondary School and were asked to pay N25,000 each.

?If you add up these fees, it is N90,000. When my wife told me, I asked them to get a knife, cut my head and sell it to raise such fee for a party.

?These schools are acting as if they are not in the country. ?Why not do something little that will need a little amount?

?My two boys already told me they weren?t attending because a day to the party, only 10 children had paid in a school of over 100 pupils.

?That alone shows that many Nigerians no longer spend money on unimportant things.

?I promised them an outing for Christmas and the case was settled.?

Mrs. Chisom Akpota, a teacher explained that her school held their end-of-year party in a new way to cut costs.

?The management of the school I teach had to cut costs knowing that parents will never support any increase in the end-of-year party fee.

?The children were asked to pay N3,000 each compared to N5,000 paid last year.

?Even with the reduction, only 20 out of 70 pupils paid.

?We just bought soft drinks, snacks and gift items for best-performing pupils this year and presented it to them on the Assembly ground.

?They sang, danced and prayed and we gave them their soft drinks and snacks.

?They were very happy.

?Some schools didn?t hold the end-of-year party because many children couldn?t pay the fee.

?This shows you that people are cutting costs by any means.?

Mrs. Omosefunmi Grace, a proprietress, said: ?You will not blame schools for increasing their end-of-the-year party fees.

?We are very aware of the way things are expensive in the market.

?If we add a little amount to what we charged them last year and present them with what we could afford, the parents will complain that the gifts don?t tally with the amount they paid.

?These are some of the reasons for the increase.

?Truly, many children didn?t pay their party fee. This also happened in my school but the party was held.

?I am a parent and know the struggles we go through to provide for our children.? (Vanguard)

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