The House of Representatives, on Wednesday, rejected a motion urging members to adopt at least one public school in their localities for the purpose of paying registration fees for students sitting for the West African Examination Council, National Examination Council and Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board examinations in public schools.
Trouble started when a member representing Etsako Federal Constituency, Edo State, Anamero Dekeri, moved a motion on the ‘Need to compel JAMB, WAEC and NECO examination bodies to register students for free in the 2023-2024 examination exercise.’
According to Punch, Dekeri premised his motion on the need to assist poor parents in the education of their children, noting that the prevailing economic situation in the country has made it difficult for many parents to fund the education of their wards even in public schools.
Dekeri 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,” and urged his colleagues to prevail on the “Ministry of Education to declare 2023 and 2024 WAEC, NECO and JAMB registration free to enable the common man have a direct benefit of fuel subsidy removal palliatives.”
House Leader, Julius Ihonvbere while supporting Dekeri by way of an amendment to the motion, prayed members of the House to take it upon themselves to adopt at least one public school secondary school, particularly the one they attended, and pay off their examination fees. This, he noted would count as corporate social responsibility on their part.
In his contribution, Hassan Doguwa, representing Doguwa/Tudun Wada Federal Constituency, Kano State, commended Dekeri for the motion, urging the House however to be careful not to compel lawmakers to sign up to pay the said examination fees.
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.”
The majority of the lawmakers present at Wednesday’s plenary voted for the motion to be stepped down and the House Speaker, Abbas Tajudeen, hit the gavel as the “nays” had their way.
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