Ogun State Government Bans Graduation Ceremonies and End-of-Session Parties in All Schools

The Ogun State Government has announced an immediate ban on graduation ceremonies and end-of-session parties across all public and private schools in the state. The directive, issued by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, aims to alleviate the mounting financial pressures placed on parents and guardians by school administrators.

The policy was communicated via an official circular signed by the Director of Education for Private Schools, A.A. Bisiriyu. According to state officials, the decision was prompted by multiple reports indicating that some school heads were leveraging end-of-year celebrations as a guise to extort exorbitant fees from families. The government explicitly stated that such exploitative financial demands will no longer be tolerated within the state’s education system.

School owners and administrators across all academic levels have been instructed to discontinue any plans for these gatherings immediately. The ministry has further directed schools to widely publicize this new regulation to parents and stakeholders to ensure total compliance. The state government warned that any institution found violating the ban would face strict regulatory sanctions.

Ogun State joins a growing list of Nigerian states taking regulatory action against expensive school celebrations to ease economic burdens on families. Recently, the Kogi State Government restated its own prohibition on excessive graduation activities for basic education and banned “sign-out” parties for higher education undergraduates. Similar restrictive measures or guidelines have also been implemented in states including Benue, Ondo, Osun, and Imo.