Niger State House of Assembly has kicked against the exploitation of Senior School Certificate Examination candidates by some private schools in the state.
Member of the State Assembly representing Agwara, Hon Bello Ahmad Agwara, in a motion at plenary yesterday alleged that some private schools in the state charge as high as N250,000 to N300,000 per candidate to enable them to register for the final year NECO or WAEC examinations.
In a motion of urgent public importance, Ahmad said the official fee for WAEC is N15,000 while for NECO is N11,000 but the private schools in the state outrightly exploit parents of students in private schools.
Hon Bello Agwara stated that the private schools had neglected their mandate of complementing the effort of the government in improving the standard of education in the State; hence the reason for granting private schools’ licences to operate in the state.
According to him “It has been observed that private schools in the state surcharge students who sit for WAEC and NECO examinations. Some private schools charge as high as N250,000 to N300,000”.
In their contributions, the legislators agreed that the private schools should not be allowed to charge examination fees anyhow as it was observed that the majority of the parents of the children who attend these schools are salary earners.
The Assembly therefore resolved to invite the state commissioner of Education and the Director General of the Private Schools Board to appear and explain to the House why private schools in the state charge students exorbitantly for WAEC and NECO Examinations without monitoring.
