Failure of govt. to pay fees: WAEC withholds 70,000 Oyo students’ results

The hope of thousands of public secondary school students who sat for the last May/June West African Examinations Council (WAEC) in Oyo state to gain admission into higher institutions of learning by September, may have been dashed.

Reason: the Oyo State Government under Senator Abiola Ajimobi has not paid WAEC’s statutory fees for these students in the state, a development that has made WAEC to withhold their results.

The state government, as part of its much-flaunted free education policy, has been responsible for payment of WAEC fees of senior secondary school students but the latest revelation that it was yet to pay for students’ WAEC fees for the year is already casting aspersions on its much-publicized free education policy.

Before now, reports from the higher institutions under the control of Oyo State Government had it that the Ajimobi’s administration has not released the annual grants for these educational institutions since the governor took over rein of governance in 2011.

Last week Wednesday, it would be recalled that WAEC released this year’s May June results and almost ten days after.

While private secondary schools students who sat for the same examination have assessed their results online, about 70, 000 students drawn from about 500 public secondary schools in the Pace Setters

State with an average of students’ enrollment figure of 150 per school are still unable to assess theirs online.

A senior WAEC officer in its Ibadan Zonal office at Ijokodo who preferred anonymity on Thursday confirmed the non-release of the results of public secondary schools.

Said he, “it is true because my attention has been drawn to it too just few days ago but only our Lagos office could tell you what precisely went wrong because we are not authorized to speak on matters

and issues like this. Let me however assure you that the results would be released before next week ends because the state government is already sorting itself out with our national headquarters.”

Meanwhile, no government official was willing to react to this development as several calls and sms sent to Commissioners for Education and her Information and Orientation counterpart, Mrs.

Tokunbo Fayokun and Mr. Taiwo Otegbeye respectively were not replied to.