Governor Masari And Removal Of Free WAEC And NECO Fees -By Al-Amin Usman Funtua

The introduction of qualifying exams to SSIII students of public secondary schools in Katsina state by His Excellency Governor Aminu Bello Masari which led to protest by hundreds of students in the state is a good policy but at the wrong time. According to the governor, only those who were able to pass the examinations would be eligible to enjoy free payment of WAEC/NECO. According to the State Commissioner of Education, Professor Halimatu Idris, out of the 46,000 students that sat for the mock examinations, only 4,600 passed with three credits.

How will you expect the students to pass the examination when there are vigorous problems in the states own secondary schools where students that are supposed to learn are denied the opportunity of learning.
Teaching and learning can only be effective and efficient when adequate provision of educational infrastructure and physical facilities are made. Education which is considered as the overall development of an individual, physically, mentally, morally, socially and economically, can only be sound if such facilities and infrastructure are made available in adequate number.

Katsina state government own secondary schools are characterized by infrastructural insufficiency, infrastructural decay, and Incompetent manpower, Poor attitude by teachers, non sustainable funding and inadequate resourcing among many other challenges. These are but a few of the challenges handed over to Governor Masari by his predecessor over which he must pause and ponder before deciding his best approach to the much needed change.

The governor should instead concentrate in confronting all these challenges he inherited by providing the schools with standard and modern learning facilities, sporting facilities, upgrade the infrastructure, massive recruitment of competent manpower, and ensure sustainable funding and adequate resourcing. The government should as a matter of urgency construct more schools in order to combat the problem of over population in schools as a lot of these schools are simply overflowing with students where you will find more than 100 students in one class.

The government should place a ceiling on the number of students that should be in a class and also ensure strict compliance. I personally suggest that the maximum number of students that should be in a class be 40. This will help in effective class coordination and monitoring. Some subjects don’t even have teachers at all therefore students that are supposed to learn these subjects are denied the opportunity of learning them. This is another source of grave concern.

Lack of competent teachers has remained a clog in the wheel of qualitative education service delivery here in Katsina state. The government has to embark on a massive recruitment drive that will ensure only competent teachers are employed – not certificate based alone but practical evidence of what the certificate holders claim to have should be tested via a demo class interview.

In order to motivate parents to take education seriously, deserving students who excel academically should be awarded scholarships from secondary school level up to the tertiary level. This scholarship should be on a yearly basis and only renewed on the basis of performance thus keeping the students on their toes all the time.This will ensure they perform optimally at all times and thus become good at whatever field they choose to major in.
Doing this will help to foster academic excellence, promote knowledge sharing and healthy academic rivalry amongst schools. This will go a long way to improve the standard of education within the state. Upon achieving all these, the government can introduces the qualifying exam and stick on it, which I am very sure that the performance of the students will improve positively.

Al-Amin Usman Funtua
President, National Association of Katsina State Students
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria
08069400100, alamkhadfuntua@gmail.com