Reps urges WAEC to emulate JAMB | EduCeleb
EduCeleb
7th November 2020
The House of Representatives Committee on Basic Education and Services has urged the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to emulate the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on revenue generation and results release.
Chairman of the house committee, Professor Julius Ihonvbere stated this when WAEC Head of National Office, Mr Patrick Areghan appeared before the committee to defend WAEC’s 2021 budget.
Since the release of the results last Monday, candidates in some states are yet to see their results because WAEC allegedly withheld it.
Ihonvebere who frowned at the seizure of results of 215,149 candidates who sat for the 2020 West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School Candidates demanded the list of the states mostly affected by it.
The Committee asked the WAEC chief why JAMB and other examination bodies conduct their examination and release their results to their candidates without such withholding.
Also, the lawmakers decried the high cost of examination fees for candidates who sit for the examination in Nigeria compared to what is payable by candidates siting for it in other countries.
In his response, Head of the examination body in Nigeria Mr Patrick Alegha said that the large chunk of the money payable to it by candidates is largely paid to the service providers.
He explained to the Committee that each candidate for the examination usually pays N13,150.00 and the money that usually comes to the examination body is usually administrative and logistic fees.
Areghan added that WAEC is not a revenue-generating body but an assessment body that collects money to conduct examinations for students.
He said that money collected from candidates does not belong to WAEC but service providers.
The council head said WAEC was currently having a deficit of N7 billion, adding that the council was not fully funded.
He also pleaded that the 2020 budget should be fully released to the council as money collected from candidates was not enough to conduct the examinations.