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Fred Ezeh, Abuja
National Examinations Council (NECO) has cautioned schools against extorting students in the ongoing registration for 2020 Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE).
It maintained that the Federal Government- approved fee for the 2020 Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) is N9,850, and no school should charge beyond that, urging candidates to report any school that charges above the Federal Government-approved fee.
Acting Registrar of NECO, Dr Abubakar Gana, told House of Representatives Committee on Basic Education and Services, who were on an oversight visit to the council on Wednesday, that it observed that some schools were charging candidates between N19,000 and N20,000 as registration fee for SSCE.
He said: “Most of these schools claim to be miracle centres, meanwhile, they specialised in aiding and abetting examination malpractices. Lazy candidates who are deficient in confidence are their customers. They pay as much as N50,000 to register so they can have their way.
“We are on it. You too have a very critical role to play. We would ensure that in all our activities, we would make you part of the monitoring team so you can see what is happening and at your own convenience, write a report to us.”
He said the council would deeply engage members of the committee to monitor its examinations and, possibly, report any infractions to guide the council on appropriate actions to be taken.
He also told the lawmakers that they have written to the Commissioners for Education in the 36 states and FCT, notifying them of the alleged extortion going on in their schools against the directive of the Federal Government.
Gana, later took the committee through the mandate of NECO and solicited review of NECO’s budget, lamenting that the examination body has not embarked on any capital project for the past three years.
He said apart from conducting examinations, NECO was finding it difficult to execute one project due to low allocation to the agency.
