Ogun urged to discontinue payment of WASSCE fees

Sodiq Oyeleke

The Ogun State Government has been urged to discontinue the payment of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination fees for its candidates.

This was contained in the 16th item of a 28-paragraph communiqué issued at the end of a two-day education summit organised by the state government.

According to the communique, paying for the examination of their wards will raise the level of responsibility and responsiveness on the part of parents.

This, the communique suggested, would lead to improved performance in the results.

Participants at the summit which took place between May 22 and 23 agreed that funds saved could be re-directed to other areas.

The Ogun State Government paid N489, 792,695m in 2016 as WASSCE fees for 41,421 candidates.

“Government should discontinue the payment of WASSCE fee and parents must be made to pay for the examination of their wards. This will raise the level of their responsibility and responsiveness on these children, thus improving performance in our results. Funds saved therefore should be re-directed to other areas,” the communique read in part.

Participants also urged the government to increase the 20 per cent budget allocation on a yearly basis for the education sector to meet the 26 per cent UNESCO benchmark.

“The government should establish a Tertiary Admission Monitoring Committee to monitor the application and admission of Ogun State indigenes into tertiary institutions, thus taking full advantage of admission opportunities available to the state and her qualified candidates across board,” the communiqué added.

On the unified examination done in the state, stakeholders agreed that it should be conducted by the government only in the third term as against the three terms in a session.

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from Punch Newspapers