NECO to sanction schools charging above official registration fee

Opeyemi Adelere

The National Examinations Council (NECO) has vowed to sanction schools charging above the government-approved fee of N9, 850 as registration fee for the 2020 Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE).

The acting Registrar of NECO, Dr Abubakar Gana, said this during a visit to the Council by the House of Representatives Committee on Basic Education and Services, on Wednesday in Abuja.

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According to the registrar, some schools were charging between N19, 000 and N20,000 as registration fee for SSCE, adding that he had written the Commissioners of Education of the 36 states and the FCT, notifying them of the extortions going on in their schools against the directive of the Federal Government.

“Not quite a month, we wrote to all the commissioners of education, highlighting that some schools, both public and private, are overcharging candidates. While the NECO fee itself is N9,850, some are even charging N20,000 in the name of administrative charges.

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“Most of these schools are miracle centres and what they do there is that they perpetrate malpractice. Candidates who are lazy and don’t have confidence can go to the extent of paying N50,000 to register so they can have their way.

“We are on it. You too have a very critical role to play. We will make sure that in all our activities, we would make you part of the monitoring team so you can see what is happening and at your convenience, write a report to us,” he said.

Gana urged the National Assembly to review NECO’s budget. He said that apart from conducting examination, NECO was finding it difficult to execute projects due to low allocation to the agency. He said in 2018, the council got budgetary allocation to purchase 18 Hilux pickups but only N7m was released to it which couldn’t even buy one.

The Chairman, House Committee on Basic Education and Services, Prof Julius Ihovbere, said the committee had high level of confidence in NECO and those managing the agency.

He said, “We believe that the role you have played, the only way to better appreciate it is to imagine a Nigeria without NECO. The limitations faced by NECO were not from the inability of the Council to deliver but because of the challenges confronting the exam body. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives will approve a review of NECO’s budget to enable it to execute its mandate.”