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From Olabode Adaramola
Niger State Government has expressed the determination to review it’s policy on the payment of final senior secondary school certificate examination fees to final year students in the state’s public secondary schools.
Governor Abubakar Sani Bello made the disclosure while conducting an inspection on the ongoing renovation work at the Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi Government Science Secondary School, Kutigi, at the weekend.
Governor Bello said that government need to review the policy because as it stands majority of the students were not coming out with good results at the end of their examinations.
He said that instead of the payment of such large sum of money up to the tune of N800m the money he said should be channelled to renovation of the schools, provision of learning equipments as well as making the teacher quaters habitable.
“We must review the policy the policy at the moment, we are still owing WAEC and NECO almost N500m for paying for students that cannot have up to five credits.
“Only about 5 per cent will get four credits and above so basically we we are throwing away money, we rather stop and invest the money in the schools facility so that in time we get a lot”, he said.
The governor who expressed satisfaction with the level of work being done at the school, said that government cannot continue paying money for what that has no value, adding that instead of paying N800m to students who cannot produce the desired results.
He stressed that such money should be used to improve the facilities of schools so that the performance of the students will be improved upon at the long run.
Alternatively, governor Bello suggested that mock examinations should be arranged so that students who scored three credits and above be paid for the examinations.
He, however, assured those who have already written their final year examinations and yet to receive the results that negotiations were almost concluded for the payment of the outstanding N500m to the examinations bodies.
The science school in Kutigi, headquarters of Lavun Local Government of the state is among the six schools picked by this administration to turned to a model, two taken each from the three senatorial district of the state.
The governor said that after this six schools have been renovated, government will pick others too and repair, lamenting the decay of which schools were subjected to by the past regimes, calling it a total neglect.
