The Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools has faulted the Federal Government’s now-suspended proposal to increase registration fees for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination and the National Examinations Council Senior School Certificate Examination, warning that education should not be turned into a revenue-generating venture at the expense of poor Nigerians.
The union said although the examination bodies face rising operational costs, any increase in examination fees must take into consideration the worsening economic hardship confronting millions of families.
The Chairman of ASUSS in Ogun State, Felix Agbesanwa, stated this on Tuesday during an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief.
According to him, education should remain affordable and accessible, particularly for children from low-income households, rather than becoming another financial burden on struggling parents.
“Education should not be a revenue-generating means from the less privileged, though NECO and WAEC serve as internally generated revenue sources for the Ministry of Education. You can’t blame them because they have their own ways of conducting the examinations,” Agbesanwa said.
He acknowledged the financial burden of conducting nationwide examinations, including the printing of question papers, transportation of examination materials, security, marking of scripts and timely release of results.
Agbesanwa, however, maintained that despite these challenges, authorities must adopt a transparent and consultative process before introducing policies that would increase the financial burden on Nigerians.
“If we look at the bottlenecks they have to overcome, they print examination questions, conduct examinations, move materials across states, mark papers and release results on time. Nevertheless, there should be a proper process for introducing policies of this nature,” he said.
The Federal Government had proposed increasing registration fees for the 2027 WAEC and NECO examinations from N27,000 to N50,000, citing rising costs of logistics, security, printing of examination materials, technology deployment and quality assurance.
The proposal, however, sparked widespread criticism from parents, students and education stakeholders, prompting the Federal Government on Monday to suspend the planned increase.
Reacting to the development, Agbesanwa said the timing of the proposed hike was inappropriate given the economic realities facing many Nigerian households.
“Even if there is a need to increase WAEC and NECO fees, this is not the right time considering what Nigerian parents are going through,” he said.
He urged policymakers to consider the plight of parents struggling to keep multiple children in school amid soaring living costs.
“Think about parents with three children in school who struggle to support them from JSS1 to SS3, or parents who can barely provide food for their children before they leave for school. These are the realities that should be considered when formulating policies,” he added.
The ASUSS chairman stressed that while examination bodies require adequate funding to maintain standards, government must ensure that financial considerations do not deny children access to quality education.
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