NIGER State Government says it spent over N477.6m on the payment of West African Examinations Council, National Examinations Council and the National Business and Technical Examination Board fees for students in public schools.
Commissioner for Education, Danladi Abdulhamid, on Thursday said the state government under its free education policy paid the fees for the students.
He said over 36,826 students sat for WAEC in public schools in the state, while 23,250 sat for the NECO.
Abdulhamid further said over 370,177 students sat for the internal examination conducted for final year pupils in public schools by the ministry last year, adding that of the figure, 54,542 of them sat for mock WAEC and NECO’.
According to him, the internal examination was conducted to gauge the likely performance of the pupils in public schools in WAEC, NECO and other public examinations, saying the result of the examination showed that 37,955 pupils passed in five credits, including English and Mathematics.
Although 16,588 students failed the test, the commissioner did not say what will become of this category of candidates.
However, Abdulhamid assured that the government would not go back on the implementation of its free education policy, saying it was of tremendous assistance to parents.
He also said the government would continue to invest in the restructuring of infrastructure in public schools to make them attain international standard.
