Payment of WASSCE, NECO fees: Bauchi Assembly to summon education commissioner for explanation

Following the controversy trailing the issue of payment of WASSCE and NECO fees in Bauchi state, the State House of Assembly has resolved to summon the Commissioner of Education, Dr Aliyu Tilde for further explanations on non-payment of fees for the 21,000 students that registered for the 2020 examination.

The resolution followed a motion of urgent public importance moved by the member representing Hardawa constituency of Misau local government, Babayo Mohammed during the house preliminary session on Wednesday.

Babayo Mohammed explained that hundreds of students last Friday took to the streets to protest government 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 that the issue has posed as a challenge because thousands of the students who registered for the exam are now demanding for the state government to pay.

ALSO READ: Reps pass South South Development Commission bill for second reading

While contributing to the debate, 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 the government for the payment of the examination fee.

He said that “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”.

It will be recalled that the Bauchi State government last week declared that it cannot sponsor all candidates from the state for the 2020 WAEC because of lack of funds couple with the reality that not all of the students are qualified to write the exams.

The development prompted all the final year secondary school students in the state to stage a protest to demand explanations from the state government on why they were not included in the payment of the fees by the state government.