The Bauchi State House of Assembly has summoned the Commissioner of Education, Dr Aliyu Tilde over the issue of non-payment of West African Examination Council fees to 21,000 students that registered for the examination.
Recall that the Bauchi State government said it could not sponsor all candidates from the state for WAEC because of lack of funds. The final year secondary school students staged a protest to demand an explanation from the state government on why they were not included in the payment of WAEC fee by the state government.
This followed a motion of urgent public importance moved by a member representing Hardawa constituency of Misau local government, Babayo Mohammed during the house preliminary session.
Babayo explained that hundreds of students took to the streets last week to protest the government’s decision to sponsor only 13,000 students who passed the mock test out of the 21,000 that registered and sat for the test.
He said the issue was a big challenge because thousands registered for the exam.
While contributing, the majority leader of the House, Tijani Aliyu Madangala, commended the Commissioner for sustaining the policy, but suggested that the ministry of Education should have notified parents of its inability to pay this year’s WAEC fees as most parents rely on government for the payment of the examination fee.
“We commend the Commissioner of Education for the policies he is introducing to save the ugly situation in the education sector, but on the other hand, his action has to be with human sympathy, most especially in respect to this payment of WAEC fees” he said.
