PARENTS in Nasarawa State have appealed to the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) to rescind its threat to withhold the results of students who sat for the May/June examinations in 19 states for non-payment of registration fees.
The council had in a press statement (including The Guardian) on July 27 said that 19 states owed N4 billion registration fees for their students who sat for the May/June 2015 examination and threatened not to release the students’ results over the indebtedness.
This has prompted some parents in the state to publicly protest that it would be wrong if WAEC withheld the students’ results over debts owed by their state governments.
They appealed to WAEC to rescind its decision, as it would affect the students negatively considering the importance of education to the socio-economic development of the country.
A parent, Mr. Thomas Nico, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria said “It surprises me to read from newspapers that WAEC is threatening to withhold the results of students in 19 states that sat for the May/June 2015 WASSCE over non-payment of candidates’ registration fees by their state governments. When we look at this issue, it is not the fault of the students. What WAEC should do is to publish the list of the affected states and take legal action against them to retrieve their money.
“Students should not be made victims by withholding their results. I want to appeal to WAEC not to withhold the results of students in these affected states because withholding their results will equally affect their chances of getting admission into various institution of higher learning,” he said.
He further appealed to the affected governments to offset the registration fees of their candidates instead of just paying lip service to the education and welfare of their students.
Another parent, Mrs. Jacinta Abraham, said if the results were not released, it would affect the standard of education in the affected states.
“I want to plead to WAEC not to withhold the results of students because it will not only affect the students’ admission into tertiary institutions but it will also affect the standard of education. WAEC should publish the list of the affected states so as to expose the state governors that pay lip service to the education of their citizens in the interest of peace and national development.
While another parent, Malam Abdul Umar appealed to the governors of the affected states to urgently offset the registration fees of their candidates in the interest of the education sector.
WAEC had on July 27 said that it could not guarantee the release of 2015 May/June WASSCE results of candidates in 19 states that were indebted to it.
