The Niger State Government is indebted to the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to the tune of N295 million in unpaid fees for the 2021 WAEC examinations, The Nation learnt.
This has made students of public secondary schools who wrote the 2021 WAEC to be unable to access their results to enable them to seek admission into universities.
The Nation learnt that WAEC withheld the results of students whose parents paid the fees and those whose fees were said to have been paid by the government.
The Niger State Government has the policy to pay the examination fees of students who passed the mock examinations while students who did not pass would have their fees paid by their parents.
It was learnt that out of N345 million owed to the examination body, the state government only paid N50 million, leaving a balance of N295 million.
The member representing Bida II at the Niger State House of Assembly, Haruna Alhaji Mohammed, who raised the issue at the plenary of the Assembly, noted that the educational future of the students hangs in the balance if the government does not pay the examination fees.
He urged the executive arm of the government to pay the backlog of WAEC examination fees to enable the release of the students’ results to enable them to seek admission to universities of their choice.
He noted that non-payment of the backlog of examination fees will also affect students who will write the examination in 2022.
The Assembly summoned the Commissioner for Education, Hajiya Hanatu Jubril to appear before the House Committee on Education to explain why the government is yet to pay the backlog of debt and what is being done to facilitate the release of the withheld results of the students.