Governor Kashim Shettima has expressed delight at the performance of Borno candidates that wrote the 2017 West African Examination Council (WAEC) and National Examinations Council (NECO) examinations.
More than eighty percent of final year students in public and private schools in Borno State obtained minimum of five credits that included Mathematics and English at this year’s Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations conducted by both WAEC and NECO.
This information was made known during a meeting between Governor Shettima and officials of WAEC and NECO over inter-governmental matters delaying release of the result to students which the state government assured are being resolved.
Borno State Government has annually been making 75 percent payments to WAEC and NECO fees for final year students in public schools with parents contributing 25 percent.
Mallam Zakari Yau Abdullahi, officer in charge of WAEC at the Maiduguri zonal office informed Governor Shettima that 87.6 percent of candidates who sat for exams from public and private schools in Borno State got minimum of five credits required for eligibility into Universities.
On the final year exams by NECO, 82.5 percent of candidates from public and private schools passed the exams, an official, Ahmed Ma’aji told Shettima during their meeting.
A total of 15,623 students of public schools sat for the two exams, Director of Education of Resource Centre in the State, Alhaji Laminu Abba said.
Shettima at the meeting directed the Commissioner for Education, Musa Inuwa Kumo to work with officials of the exam bodies and come up with immediate remedy on the pending payments.
“I want this issue immediately resolved. This non payment falls shot of out policy on Education. Borno is usually at the top in terms of making all payments to the Federal Government on issues concerning Education.
”I am a product of the public school system; I never attended any private school. It’s a temporary setback that must not be allowed to be a serious problem for candidates”
Meanwhile, Shettima has requested an existing committee to help in lobbying Universities within and outside Borno State to get admissions for eligible students.
The Governor said he had expected the take off of the State University but funds that should have gone to the University were slowed using a scale of preference that gave priority to rebuilding of communities to resettle citizens in need of permanent shelters.
“As at last year, we had projected the coming of tremendous financial support from multiple sources, local and international, which we had planned to deploy to rebuilding communities. Our projection wasn’t met hence we had to draw up a systematic scale of preference.
”Unfortunately, in this scale of preference, some capital projects had to be slowed down. For instance, we had planned that the Borno State University was to take off this year.
”However, we had to slow down release of funds into that project because rebuilding communities to resettle our displaced brothers and sisters in need, was considered far more urgent. This is yet another way the Boko Haram insurgency keeps altering our objectives.
”My heart bled yesterday when officials of the West African Examinations Council and National Examinations Council informed me that more than 80 percent of our sons and daughters secured five credits including mathematics and English in this year’s Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations that will soon be released.
”Whereas I was overwhelmingly excited by the result, I was sad by the fact that these boys and girls could have easily been admitted into the our State University. Sadly, our scale of preference made rebuilding of communities a bigger priority.
”But as a form of compensation, I will like to specially request the chairman and members of the Committee on Borno State University to kindly contact Universities within and outside the State, to intensely lobby for placements of our secondary school graduates during the upcoming admission.
”The Borno State Government will give the committee whatever support it needs to ensure that majority of our eligible sons and daughters get admitted into tertiary institutions based on their individual merit”, Shettima said.
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