7th October, 2016
The Jigawa Government says it has spent about N700 million to pay for 2016 Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE) registration fees for all indigenous students in the state.
The state Commissioner for Education, Hajiya Rabi Ishaq, gave the figure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Dutse on Friday.
Ishaq said that the money was used to pay registration fees to the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC), National Examination Council (NECO), and National Business Technical Examination Board (NABTEB).
She said that the gesture was to expand access to education and ensure that poverty did not hinder indigent ones from completing their education.
The Commissioner said that the state government had approved the establishment of five remedial colleges to cater for students who did not do well in SSCE examination.
According to her, there is also a plan to establish 27 remedial centres in all the local government areas in the state.
She said that the centres would be established for those that did not have up to five credits in their SSCE examination, to prepare them for subsequent examination.
Ishaq said that entrepreneurship skills would be introduced in such centres to enable those who could not pass their examinations to acquire skills and become self-reliant.
She said that the government had also concluded plans to establish nine more science and technical schools across the state.