The Niger State Government on Thursday disclosed that in the last academic year it spent over N477.6 million on the payment of WAEC, NECO and NABTEB fees for students in public schools who sat for the examinations.
The Commissioner for Education, Alhaji Danladi Umar Abdulhamid, said that at a post State Executive Council meeting briefing that government under its free education policy pays one public examination fees for students in the state while the parents pay for the other.
Abdulhamid said that while over 36,826 students sat for WAEC in public schools in the state, 23,250 students sat for the NECO examinations, with parents paying the NECO fee for their wards, which cost them over N179.2m.
Abdulhamid further disclosed that over 370,177 students sat for the internal examination conducted for final year students in public schools by the ministry last year, adding that of the figure, 54,542 students sat for mock WAEC/NECO.
According to him: “The internal examination was conducted to gauge the likely performance of students in public schools in WAEC, NECO and other public examinations. The result of the examination showed that 37,955 students passed with five credits, including English or Mathematics.”
Out of the figure, 16,588 students failed the test but the Commissioner did not say what will become of this category of students.
However, Abdulhamid assured the people of the state that government will not go back on the implementation of its free education policy because it has been discovered to be of tremendous assistance to parents.
He also said that government will continue to invest in the restructuring of physical infrastructure in public schools to make them attain international standard.
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