By Bayo Aka.
The Speaker, Kogi State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Aliyu Umar Yusuf has directed that the four hundred ninety seven million, three hundred thousand naira (N497,300,000) West African Examination Council (WAEC) examination fees released by Governor Yahaya Bello be paid into the coffers of the examination body latest by December 30th, 2023.
This directive was given to the state Commissioner of Education, Science and Technology, Mr Wemi Jones during plenary sitting.
This was after he had cleared the air on the confusion caused by some school principals who were collecting WAEC fees and other levies despite the release of the funds by the state government.
Directed to make specific messages, Mr Wemi Jones assured the House and Kogi State public that Gov Bello had released the sum of #497,300,000 for the payment of WAEC fees for 15,033 students across the 21 Local Government Areas of the state.
He also disclosed that the released money was not missing but intact in the coffers of the ministry’s account and it would not be released to any principal or school, adding that it would rather be released to WAEC before the closing date of January 28, 2024.
The Hon Commissioner warned principals and examination officers to desist from any act of criminality by asking students to make payments for WAEC,PTA and any other levies.
He averred that education is free as far as Gov Bello and Kogi State are concerned., pointing out that principals, school heads, examination officers are not to collect any Kobo from any student for WAEC or PTA levy.
Stressing that private schools are not included in this government largess ,he disclosed that after the verification exercise to ascertain the true number of the students, it will be published school by school.
Mr Jones also pointed out that the fees for WAEC in the state is the sum of #33,100 only for year 2024 and warned private schools not to charge a Kobo more.
He warned that any private school that charged a kobo more than the fixed fee would have the ministry to contend with.
