. Parents suspect new policy
Niger State government will no longer pay the West African Examination Council (WAEC) and the National Examination Council (NECO) fees for every eligible candidate except for those who perform well and deserving government assistance.
This is coming on the heels the controversy surrounding the payment of outstanding N500 million debt owed NECO and WAEC which led to the withholding of last June/July Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE) results.
The planned policy review by the Governor Sani Bello-led government has however come under criticisms and suspicion as parents/ guardians see it as more of tactical withdrawal in assisting parents to reduce financial burden of school fees in the face of excruciating economic hardship.
It was reported recently how Niger State government’s refusal to remit monies paid for NECO and WAEC examination by parents caused the seizure of the results for over 5, 000 candidates who sat for the June/July 2016 SSCE in Niger State.
However, the state government few days later said that it was not stopping financial assistance to candidates as speculated but was reviewing the policy whereby government would stop wasting money on people who did not do well or are not doing well academically which would only amount to wasting scarce resources of the state on such people.
Part of the review being considered would also entail, reviewing a policy of paying for every student that has completed his/her secondary school by encouraging only those of them who by records are academically sound and desire to further their education.
Deputy Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Jide Orintunsin, said, “There is a policy review in the case of payment and not total stoppage of payment because students were abusing the fact that government was paying for them”.
According to Jide, “Findings show that students are abusing the policy by not taking their studies seriously resulting in poor performances. Less than five per cent of them make up to five credits hence government’s decision for a screening process for the best deserving students to be paid for.
“Instead of bank-rolling failures, mock examinations will be set for the candidates under the new policy and only candidates that passed will have their examinations fees paid for them.”
”Savings from the block money usually released will be used to develop, rehabilitate and equip our schools, train and re-train teachers for a more functional teaching and learning,” Jide said, adding that the state government is currently indebted to NECO and WAEC to the tune of about N500 million, a sum partly inherited from the previous administration.
Meanwhile, some parents who spoke on the developments had argued that Governor Bello was not adequately briefed on the controversy surrounding the withholding of their wards’ result by NECO and therefore said that the new policy was rather suspicious.
Mr. Ndagana Jubrin said parents were not happy that after paying for their wards, the state Ministry of Education which is the coordinating ministry for the payments collected the monies but refused to remit same to NECO.
“Governor Sani Bello is talking about reviewing NECO, WAEC payment policy, we are not against that but he is leaving out the issues we raised about monies parents paid through the state Ministry of Education that was not remitted to the appropriate coffers,” he said.
