By Victor Ogunje
The Ekiti State Government has approved the sum of N248,522,900 to defray the May/June 2020 West African Examination Council (WAEC) fees of the SS3 students in public secondary schools across the state.
The money is meant to pay for the enrolment of 14,242 final year students billed to sit for the external examination.
In 2019, the state government paid over N227 million as WAEC fees for 13,390 candidates in SS3.
The state Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Mr Foluso Daramola, who revealed this in Ado-Ekiti on Wednesday, warned school principals and registrars of all public secondary schools across the state, against collection of any fee not approved by the government from students.
Daramola said: “The government is committed to making education accessible to all and sundry in the state regardless of their origin and status.
“Therefore we call on parents and guardians to always make education of their children a priority in the scheme of things.”
Reeling out government’s investment in education, Daramola said the government had, in 2019, procured 52,000 units of school furniture for public secondary schools across the state as part of efforts aimed at providing basic infrastructural facilities in schools.
“The state government has also been paying the running grants to all public primary and secondary schools in the state. About N5 million was being released as monthly feeding and maintenance grants to three special schools in the state.
“The state government would continue to do the needful in the education sector, despite the limited resources at the disposal of the state,” he said.
The commissioner however called on individuals, philanthropists and corporate organizations to contribute to the educational development of the state through the institution of scholarship awards for brilliant but indigent students.
