Parents, children shun end-of-year party, as fees soar

 By Elizabeth Adegbesan

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.

Economy&Lifestyle 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.