The House of Representatives, has rejected a motion that seeks to declare 2023-2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination; the West African Senior School Certificate Examination; and the National Examination Council free.
The motion was moved by the member representing Etsako Federal Constituency, Edo State, Anamero Dekeri, at the plenary on Wednesday, October 25.
In the motion titled, “Need to compel JAMB, WAEC, and NECO examination bodies to register students for free in the 2023-2024 examination exercise,” Dekeri urged the house to declare the 2023 and 2024 JAMB, WAEC, and NECO free to assist poor parents.
He said, “The House notes that one of the major challenges of the low-income-earning parents is the education of their wards, particularly in payment of examination fees,”
Dekeri further urged his colleagues to prevail on the “Ministry of Education to declare 2023 and 2024 WAEC, NECO and JAMB registration free to enable common man have a direct benefit of fuel subsidy removal palliatives.”
He also called on the House to urge “the Minister of Finance, Budget, Economic and Financial Planning to come up with a robust framework that will give the poor masses a sense of belonging in Nigeria.”
Supporting the motion, the House Leader, Julius Ihonvbere, prayed members of the House to take it upon themselves to adopt at least one public school secondary school, particularly schools in their and pay off students’ examination fees.
According to Ihonvbere, this would count as a corporate social responsibility on their part.
Also speaking on the raised motion, the lawmaker representing Doguwa/Tudun Wada Federal Constituency, Kano State,Hassan Doguwa, called on the House to be careful not to compel lawmakers to sign up to paying examination fees for students.
Doguwa said, “The motion is very good but some of us are already doing this. Let us be careful. We can intervene in any way we can but let this not come in the body of the motion because there is going to be a problem.”
Another lawmaker representing Andoni/Opobo Nkoro of Rivers State, Awaji-Inombek Abiante, expressed concern in the use of the word “compel” in the title of the motion, warning that the House lacks constitutional powers to compel the examination bodies to register students for free.
“Let’s say, I picked a school I attended to pay their examination fees, what about the other public schools in that constituency? Does that portray me in a good light before those other schools?” he asked.
When the motion was out to vote, the majority of the lawmakers said “Nay”.
