The Niger State Government says it will review its policy on the payment of senior secondary school certificate examination fees to final year students as the effort is not yielding the desired result.
The state government is currently owing West African Examination Council and National Examinations Council (NECO) the sum of N500 million, having paid N300 million recently.
Following the indebtedness, the two examination bodies withheld 2016/2017 results of candidates in the state, thereby frustrating efforts to access Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) forms for admission into tertiary institutions.
The state government and representatives of the examination bodies met recently over the matter, where it paid part of the debt to allow candidates access their results.
Governor Abubakar Sani Bello told journalists while inspecting ongoing renovation work at the Justice Idris Legbo Government Science Secondary School, Kutigi that the state government would review the assistance to the students because they were not performing to expectation.
He said the gesture would rather be channeled to making education environment conducive for learning. “Only about five per cent will get four credits and above, so basically we are throwing away money; we rather stop and invest the money in the school facilities, including learning materials so that in time the performance of students will be enhanced,” he said.
He said even if the state government would eventually still shoulder such responsibility, prospective candidates would be assessed through a mock examination where the best would be selected.
