Why Katsina cancelled payment of WAEC/NECO fees – COS

How does government intend to ensure that students attain excellent education? We undertook a careful study of the deplorable terrain in education, even before coming into office; we have to improve primary and secondary education and eventually the tertiary sector.  Our discoveries are enabling us plan properly; we have commenced work by giving education the […]

How does government intend to ensure that students attain excellent education?
We undertook a careful study of the deplorable terrain in education, even before coming into office; we have to improve primary and secondary education and eventually the tertiary sector.  Our discoveries are enabling us plan properly; we have commenced work by giving education the lion share in the 2016 budget. Fifty schools are being rehabilitated and before the end of the year, with our little resources we want to achieve between 70-90 per cent of our plan.
 
Where you able to find the causes of decay and decline in the sector?
 It is multifaceted; the students, parents, and most especially the past governments should bear the blame for politicizing education. We met a sector that wasn’t functioning at all. We intend to employ over 2,000 teachers even with little resources, because the teacher shortages are too enormous to ignore. We are trying to salvage the situation. We have to train and retrain them in addition to overhauling the sector. This is why the government is looking into reviving the PTA, School Based Management Committees to ensure that government monies are not wasted by the students at will.
 
Why did you cancel payment of students’ WAEC/NECO fees?
The position of government on this is very clear because we do not intend to play politics with education; the previous government messed things up. Why should you take three billion naira and pay students’ NECO/WAEC fees while 90 percent of the students sit on bare floor, with no teachers not even qualified ones for that matter? Why should you do that? Who are you trying to impress? You are playing to the gallery. What we are saying is that after carefully studying the results, last year we discovered that only 10 per cent were able to get five credits and above. This percentage included Katsina State indigenes across the country.  What future do we have when about 46,000 students sit for exams and only 4,000 are qualified for university? Out of this figure, less than 2,000 students were from public schools. What we say is not new, we all know it; usually a mock examination and promotion exanimation are conducted before you are allowed to move to the next stage.
What we are introducing is a promotion exam from one class to the next and reintroduced mock examination. Before you sit for the finals there should be an internal exam from the school which will qualify you to sit for finals and anybody that qualifies, government will be ready to pay. 
We are doing this for two reasons; firstly, saving Katsina State money by investing it where appropriate, secondly encouraging the parents to sit up to make sure their children read very well. We will pay for you when you pass the mock, this will mean we are not throwing our money into the ocean but securing the future of Katsina State.
 
But people believe that the decision came too soon
This is not the fault of the students, the issues are enormous, and they involve the teachers, parents and students. So, we introduced the mock exam this year just as we are doing so much to address the challenges of the sector. We gave the space of a year, from the date of the mock examination.  About 47,000 sat for it, but only 4,600 passed with three credits and above.
Not five credits and above, we didn’t even bother about having mathematics and English, we lowered the cut-off score to three credits, so those that pass this mock will get the free payment of WAEC/NECO and those that get the three will get free NECO payments since this is our first year. But if their parents want them to sit for WAEC they can personally pay for them.
Government is taking the responsibility of paying for those that even got zero credits, for this year, we said this year alone but by next year, we will only pay for those that have five credits and above and by then we have made investment in the sector that will reposition it, to get something out of it. But if a parent wants to throw away his money, he can pay for his ward even if he fails the mock exams, as for government we will invest our money wisely. I believe no right thinking person will invest money where nothing will come up.