Kogi state commissioner for Education science and technology, Wemi Jones reiterated that the money released by Governor Yahaya Bello for the payment of 2023 WAEC fees for students in public secondary schools across the state will be judiciously deployed for the purpose intended.
The Commissioner stated this when he appeared before the Kogi state House of Assembly to clear the air on the controversy surrounding the money released by the governor and the request by some principals of public secondary schools who asked students to pay for the WAEC fees.
Mr Jones explained that any principal who demanded WAEC fees from students was fraudulent as the state government had released the sum of four hundred and ninty seven million five hundred and ninty two thousand, three hundred naira for fifteen thousand and thirty three students across the public secondary schools in the state.
He said the total number of students captured by the ministry for the WAEC exam was generated from the register the principals submitted to the ministry stressing that any student who was not captured would be done as soon as the principal who have not submitted their registers do so.
The commissioner cautioned principal from engaging in criminal act of asking students to pay for the WAEC or PTA fees as the government was implementing it’s education sector plan of free education in the state.
He emphasized that the deadline for the WAEC exam registration was 28 of January next year and warned no parent in private school should pay more than #33,100 for the WAEC fee.
The lawmakers who had raised the alarm of the request by some principals demanding WAEC fees from students expressed satisfaction with the responses of the commissioner.
The speaker of the Kogi state House of Assembly, Aliyu Umar Yusuf on his part directed the ministry to conclude the registration of students on the thirty first of December.