The Kano State House of Assembly has urged the National Examination Council to shift the September 3 deadline for the registration of Senior Secondary Certificate Examination in the country.
This followed the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance by Aminu Sa’ad (PDP-Ungoggo) at plenary on Wednesday.
Speaking on the motion, Sa’ad said most parents were unable to register their children for the examination due to late release of qualifying examination by the State Government.
He said: “If you can remember, recently the state government ordered for the release of the qualifying examination results for 104,000 students.
“Out of the 104000 students, only 29,126 secured five credits and above, including Mathematics and English, representing about 15 per cent.
“This is of great concern to us because it will affect the number of students from Kano to be enrolled in higher institutions in the next academic year.”
Sa’ad also appealed to the state government to explore the possibility of sponsoring additional students for the examination due to the inability of parents to pay for their children.
He said the COVID-19 lockdown had negatively impacted on Nigerians as most parents have lost their sources of their livelihood.
Contributing, Majority Leader, Kabiru Dashi, urged the House to lobby the state’s lawmakers in the National Assembly towards sponsoring indigents students from their constituencies.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the state government had earmarked N489.25 million for sponsoring of 29,126 candidates for the SSCE.
The government also directed all 44 local government councils in the state to sponsor 200 students out of those who failed to obtain the required credits.
Meanwhile, the House has set up a seven-man committee headed by the Deputy Speaker, Hamisu Chidari, to investigate major cause of the mass failure among students in the state with the aim of finding solution to the problem.
The committee was given four weeks to submit its report back to the House.