UMUAHIA, NIGERIA— The Abia State Government has provided a stern warning to administrators of public and independent schools throughout the state, threatening serious legal and administrative sanctions versus any institution found obtaining parents through unauthorised graduation costs and ceremonies.
The policy directive was officially released on Friday, July 10, 2026, by the Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Fundamental and Secondary Education, Mr Duru Marvellous, on behalf of the substantive Commissioner, Elder Goodluck Ubochi.
The state’s intervention intends to curb the growing pattern of commercialised graduation ceremonies for non-terminal classes, a practice that has actually placed significant financial pressure on households.
Enforcing the Statutory Terminal Class Exemption Guideline
Under the recently enhanced standards, the Ministry clearly restated that graduation events are legally acknowledged and approved only for the 2 terminal endpoints of the standard and senior secondary education cycles.
Read Also: Kwara forbids graduation and end-of-session events in schools.
Consequently, the federal government has put an absolute ban on obligatory levies for internal transitions, classifying them as unauthorised extortions.
Immediate Enforcement and Public Reporting Channels
The state government acted following field intelligence reports showing that numerous school proprietors were continuing to enforce high, compulsory graduation charges on students moving between routine marketing classes.
To ensure stringent adherence, the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education has actually deployed tracking and enforcement teams throughout all local government education authorities to carry out unannounced tracking exercises.
Commissioner Ubochi urged parents, guardians, and education stakeholders to withstand these unlawful charges and actively report non-compliant institutions straight to the Ministry for timely examination and definitive legal action.