The suspension of the proposed WASSCE/NECO fee increase is undoubtedly the correct decision. Nevertheless, it should also prompt careful reflection within government. Policies affecting education must always begin with a simple but enduring principle, that no Nigerian child should be denied opportunity because of poverty.
By Shu’aibu Usman Leman
The Federal Government’s decision to suspend the proposed increase in registration fees for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and the National Examinations Council (NECO) Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) is both welcome and commendable. It demonstrates that public concerns can still influence public policy and that consultation remains an essential pillar of democratic governance.
However, while the suspension offers immediate relief to millions of Nigerian families, it does not address the more troubling question as to why such a proposal was considered in the first place.
The mere contemplation of significantly increasing examination fees at a time when millions of households are battling relentless inflation, soaring food prices, rising transport costs and diminishing purchasing power reflects a disturbing disconnect from the realities of everyday life. For many parents, particularly those with several children, such an increase would not simply have represented an additional expense. It could have determined whether a child remained in school or abandoned education altogether.
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Throughout my career as a journalist, I have travelled extensively across Nigeria and encountered families whose commitment to education remains extraordinary despite overwhelming hardship. I have met parents who denied themselves life’s basic comforts to keep their children in school. I have spoken with students who studied beneath trees, by the light of kerosene lamps and in overcrowded classrooms because they believed education offered the surest route to a better future.
Those experiences have convinced me that Nigeria’s greatest wealth lies not beneath the ground but within the hopes, talents and determination of its young people.
That is why any policy capable of restricting access to education deserves the most rigorous scrutiny.
No one disputes that the cost of conducting credible national examinations has risen considerably. Inflation has increased expenditure on logistics, security, printing, technology, quality assurance and administration. These pressures are real and cannot simply be wished away.
Yet governments are expected to respond to economic pressures with imagination and compassion, not by transferring the burden to citizens who are themselves struggling to survive. Education is not an ordinary public service. It is the foundation upon which every prosperous society is built. Treating it primarily as a cost to be recovered rather than an investment to be protected risks undermining the nation’s long-term development.
My greatest concern remains the likely impact such a policy would have had on Northern Nigeria, where educational challenges remain particularly acute. The region continues to grapple with widespread poverty, insecurity, lower school enrolment and completion rates, and one of the largest population of out-of-school children in the World. A substantial increase in examination fees would almost certainly have widened those disparities, placing secondary education even further beyond the reach of many deserving students.
Education should narrow regional inequalities, not reinforce them. A gifted child in Birnin Gwari, Bama, Gashua or Dutse deserves precisely the same opportunity as a child in Lagos, Ibadan or Port Harcourt. Access to national examinations should depend upon academic preparation and determination, never upon a family’s financial circumstances.
The consequences extend well beyond individual households. Every young Nigerian prevented from completing secondary education because of financial hardship represents a loss of talent, productivity and human potential. Over time, those losses weaken economic growth, deepen inequality and undermine national stability. Investing in education is therefore not merely a social responsibility; it is an economic and strategic necessity.
Some have suggested that student loan schemes provide an adequate response. Respectfully, they do not. Such programmes may assist those entering tertiary institutions, but they offer no comfort to a student who cannot afford the examinations required to qualify for university admission. Before discussing access to higher education, we must first ensure that children can complete their secondary education without being priced out.
The Government’s decision to suspend the proposal and undertake wider consultation is therefore encouraging. Policymaking is invariably stronger when it is informed by dialogue rather than dictated by administrative convenience. Parents, educators, examination bodies, school proprietors, organised labour, civil society organisations and education experts should all have a meaningful voice in shaping policies that affect millions of young Nigerians.
This episode should also encourage a broader national conversation about how education is financed. If examination bodies require additional resources to maintain standards, government should explore more equitable and innovative solutions rather than placing the heaviest burden on families least able to bear it. Protecting access to education should remain a national priority regardless of prevailing economic circumstances.
This debate is far more than WAEC and NECO registration fees. It concerns the kind of Nigeria we aspire to build. Will we create a society in which opportunity is determined by talent, diligence and ambition, or one in which it increasingly depends upon the financial capacity of a child’s parents?
The suspension of the proposed WASSCE/NECO fee increase is undoubtedly the correct decision. Nevertheless, it should also prompt careful reflection within government. Policies affecting education must always begin with a simple but enduring principle, that no Nigerian child should be denied opportunity because of poverty.
History rarely remembers governments for the revenue they generated. It remembers whether they expanded opportunity or restricted it; whether they invested in their people or neglected them.
Nigeria’s future will not be secured by making education more expensive. It will be secured by making education more accessible, more equitable and more attainable for every child, irrespective of circumstance.
That is the legacy worthy of any government.
