Re: Governor Masari, pay all students Waec/Neco fees

But for the deliberate misinformation contained in the article “Governor Masari, pay all students WAEC/NECO fees”, published in the Daily Trust, penultimate Sunday edition, one would not have bothered responding, because it is clear that politics, rather than reason, was the raison d’etre for penning it. The bone of contention, going by the heading of […]

But for the deliberate misinformation contained in the article “Governor Masari, pay all students WAEC/NECO fees”, published in the Daily Trust, penultimate Sunday edition, one would not have bothered responding, because it is clear that politics, rather than reason, was the raison d’etre for penning it.
The bone of contention, going by the heading of the article, is the wise decision taken by the Katsina state Governor, Rt. Hon. Aminu Bello Masari to discontinue the blanket payment of examination fees for secondary school students billed to sit for WAEC, NECO and NABTEB, effective from 2016 academic year.
The writer, who goes by the name of Muntari Alli (clearly, an alien name as far as nomenclature in Katsina State is concerned), implies that the decision is unpopular so much that “except all the stakeholders in the Katsina project, irrespective of political party affliation, rise up to speak against the obnoxious policy of the Masari administration on education, it is just a matter of time before the state is relegated to the background”.
But Mr. Alli, Katsina can’t get any more backwards in education than it is now, consistently recording the worst result in the country in these examinations, despite the over N3 billion being wasted annually by the state government in settling the fees.
What is more, the good people of Katsina State are enlightened enough to know what is good for them, which is why, they do not need anybody to tell them what is supposed to not be good for them. And, contrary to the writer’s claim that “tension is brewing across the state over the decision”, many stakeholders have in fact expressed their support for the government.
At a meeting with the governor recently, the leadership of the academic and non-academic staff unions of tertiary institutions owned by the state government unanimously supported the discontinuation of the blanket payment of examination fees, believing that the money being wasted could be best channelled towards the rehabilitation of the infrastructure in the foundation level education sector.
An independent survey of primary and secondary schools conducted by Daily Trust newspaper provides a graphic picture of the delapidated state of public schools in the state. The result of the survey was published in the newspaper’s edition of Thursday, 7th January, 2016.
Despite the over N1 trillion it had earned in the eight years it had been in office, the Ibrahim Shehu Shema administration has allowed the education sector to rot, so much that about N42 billion is needed to revamp education from foundation level in the state.
Consider the woeful statistics: Out of the 206,768 candidates who sat for WASSCE between 2008 and 2014, only 31, 228 passed with five credits and above. Also, out of the 212, 624 that sat for NECO between 2008 and 2014, only 45,027 made it with five credits and above.
This appalling performance it was that led to the reintroduction of the internal MOCK examination in the state last year. And going by the result of the ‘maiden’ edition of the MOCK examination, the decision of the government on the payment of examination fees would seem not to have come too soon, as out of the 46, 000 students who sat for it only 4, 600 passed with three credits and above.
It is the height of foolishness to expect that WAEC or NECO certificate would be enough in this age when even the job of a chauffeur or gateman, requires a first degree as the minimum educational qualification.
Of course, the Masari Administration is “serious about repositioning the education sector in the state”, and that is why it is trying to save a substantial part of the N3 billion being wasted on hopeless students, in order to “provide the infrastructural needs of public schools and recruit the needed manpower”, which the writer challenges it to do.
And for the information of Mr. Alli and his incognito sponsors, who have been silenced by the activities of the EFCC in the state, Governor Masari has again walked his talk, as he has transferred his primary and secondary school-going children to public schools in the state, in fulfillment of his campaign pledges. So have all the members of his cabinet and other aides who have members of their family in the state.
And there is nothing “cosmetic” in the government’s award of contract for the ongoing rehabilitation and expansion of many primary and secondary schools across the state, as even the blind can feel that something positive is really taking place. And the contractors are as diverse as the projects. Cosmetics is a word not spoken in the same sentence with Governor Masari’s activities and or actions.
But for the fact that the writer is blinded by partisanship, he would have seen that Katsina is not the only state in the country to arrive at this funds-saving decision. Several other states have cued into it.
It may also interest the writer to know that decades earlier, patriotism personified, father and Premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto had taken a similar decision on the payment of examination fees for indolent and lazy students who consistently failed to make the grades in promotion examination.
In a speech at his Alma Mata, Government College Zaria on 16th of September, 1963, the Premier declared that “As regards the lazy and indolent students, I see little point in government giving further financial assistance for their education”.
On this matter, Governor Aminu Bello Masari is clearly in an august company.
Abdu Labaran Malumfashi, SSA Media to Katsina state Governor.