Some parents in Rivers State have called for a ban on non-essential items in schools amid rising economic challenges and low income levels.

The parents lamented high demands from schools, which were causing undue financial pressures and sometimes affecting their health.

Meanwhile, The Guardian’s monitoring revealed low turnout among pupils and students on Monday as the new academic year commenced in Rivers State and other parts of the country.

At one of the schools visited, a parent who came to register her 11-year-old girl at Community Secondary School, Rumuekini, in ObioAkpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, Mr. Zabulum Ikedi, lamented that the State government no longer upholds its policies of free education.

Mr. Ikedi lamented that heavy financial burdens, such as fees, books, and uniforms, are now being shifted to parents.

He said that such challenges, including poor infrastructure and a lack of desks, among others, no longer make the public school attractive.

Similarly, a parent whose children are schooling at the Blessed Academy in Mile 3, Diobu in Port Harcourt City Local Government Area in Rivers, urged government to ban activities like cultural day, graduations and redirect focus to academics.

Meanwhile, the Rivers State government, through the Ministry of Education, on Monday embarked on a monitoring exercise of school resumption, which recorded a low turnout of students.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Dr. Ndidi Chikanele Utchay, expressed dissatisfaction with the turnout of students at schools on Monday, urging parents to release their children to commence the academic year.

Similarly, the Chairman of the Rivers State Basic Education Board, Sam Ogeh, led board members on an inspection of public schools.

He expressed the government’s commitment to immediate measures to address the shortfall of teachers in the state, particularly in the Basic Education sector.

He frowned at the low turnout of teachers in some schools and directed that absent teachers be transferred to their community schools as a punitive measure.

Ogeh also frowned at the rate of destruction and theft of school properties at the Township School, opposite the Alfred Diete Spiff Sports complex, and cautioned that the government would not fold its arms and watch such acts continue.

Ogeh also directed retired staff and teachers still occupying school quarters to vacate those quarters within seven days.

Some of the schools he visited include the Government Comprehensive Secondary School, Borikiri; Township School; Army Day School Rainbow; and CSS Nkpolu Oroworukwo, among others.