Don’t toy with future of Sokoto, Zamfara students

The recent disclosure by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) that Sokoto and Zamfara state governments failed to register students in public schools for the ongoing 2022 May/June West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) demonstrates the triviality with which Nigerian leaders generally treat education. Speaking to newsmen ahead of the examination, the Head of the National Office of WAEC in Nigeria, Patrick Areghan, disclosed that “While Zamfara has accumulated unpaid fees for years, Sokoto and the examination body are in dispute over tax rules and fees”. The 2022 WASSCE started on May 16 and will end on June 23, 2022.

This is the second year that Sokoto State has failed to present candidates from its public schools for the WASSCE. The state Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Bello Muhammad Gwiwa, explained that the state government did not register students this year because WAEC refused to furnish it with details of its Tax Identification Number (TIN). He said their insistence on the TIN code was in compliance with the State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability Programme. Speaking for WAEC, Areghan explained that although TIN was mandatory for registration; “no candidate was denied registration as a result of non-submission of TIN”.

However, when names were submitted for registration this year, Gwiwa said WAEC insisted on payment of at least 40 per cent of the registration fees before the Personal Identification Number (PINs) of the candidates are released. This, Gwiwa said, was even as Sokoto State does not owe WAEC any backlog of registration fees.

Gwiwa also said the state couldn’t register students for WASSCE last year because the software developed by WAEC distorted candidates’ names and other details submitted by the state. He said WAEC accepted to correct candidates’ biodata on the condition that the state government would pay N5,000 for each correction. With over 360 schools in the state, an additional N100,000 was requested to be paid for every school where students’ names required corrections. As the money to be paid in lieu of corrections amounted to hundreds of millions of naira, Gwiwa said the state decided not to pay because the mistakes did not emanate from it.

In Zamfara, the government had complained about over-bloated lists of candidates being presented by heads of public schools. The state government discovered in 2016 when it set up a committee to ascertain the actual number of final year students on the nominal roll of its public schools that the figures were inflated with over 2,300 names. Some principals were accused of adding names of candidates who have graduated but probably failed WASSCE at a previous sitting.

While 30,000 students from public schools in Sokoto State and over 20,000 in Zamfara State are not part of the ongoing WASSCE for different reasons, none of the reasons justifies their exclusion from the exam. In fact, they are too flimsy to deny students the opportunity to write the examination.  WAEC said Zamfara had a backlog of N1.6 billion in unpaid fees for 2019, 2020 and 2021. While compliance to state fiscal laws by all agencies including WAEC is encouraged, it’s criminal of the Sokoto State government to alienate students in its public schools from writing WASSCE by refusing to make an advance payment of 40 per cent registration fee as demanded by WAEC. Only a state governor whose priorities do not include education would allow that. It’s simply irresponsible of the Zamfara State government to fail to pay the over N1 billion owed WAEC for the examinations already written by its students.

It’s ridiculous that governors of these two northern states in northwest Nigeria spend more than what they require to pay WAEC to register students for WASSCE on frivolities such as the purchase of SUV cars for traditional rulers and political appointees. The money governors spend on their trips, including private tours using charter aircraft is far more than the annual bill for WASSCE registration.

The assertion by Gwiwa that students from Sokoto State “can do without WAEC”, because they “wrote NABTEB and NECO last year” is not only scandalous but shows he is insensitive as a public officer to the needs, rights, privileges and opportunities of schoolchildren. The writing of WASSCE would have increased candidates’ chances of obtaining enough credit passes that would guarantee them admission into tertiary institutions. The inactions of Sokoto and Zamfara states, unfortunately, deny students in their public schools the same opportunity, that their counterparts across the country enjoy.

The right of students in public schools of Sokoto and Zamfara states to all privileges enjoyed by their colleagues nationwide must be preserved. Daily Trust calls on the two state governments to take advantage of the Nov/Dec WASSCE and quickly register their students; paying all necessary fees. These students must not miss out of this alternative platform. All issues connected to TIN code should be resolved.

Although the payment of examination fees by state governments is a recent but commendable development, many governors that first saw it as a means to political fame now consider it a burden; withdrawing their commitment. We urge affected states to let parents and schoolchildren know if the policy is no longer sustainable. If it must continue, a set of criteria should guide its implementation. Students must be protected from becoming victims of the failure of governance.