The Katsina State Government said it has spent over N4.2 billion to pay various examination fees for 399, 550 secondary school students across the state from 2015 to 2021.
Speaking to journalists recently, the state commissioner for education, Prof Badamasi Lawal Charanchi, disclosed this while responding to an allegation written by one Hon. Abubakar Bichi, alleging that the government failed to pay examination fees for the students this year.
Prof Charanchi said the allegation is a misrepresentation of the effort of Governor Aminu Bello Masari’s administration on education, stressing that Hon. Bichi was not acquainted with the performance of the government and also failed to verify from various boards of education to have first-hand information.
He explained, “If somebody with this report of about 28 examinations, paid by the State government and you are now talking about one, two or three examinations that we are thinking about this year will be paid. And you are shouting the state has not paid, it is a misrepresentation of the thorough situation of what is obtained in the state.
“Such kind of persons are mean persons, and there is malice in what he is doing. If I were him, I would have commended the effort of the government for the payment of all the SSCE examinations total to about N4,234,185,251.00. That has been duly paid between 2015 to 2021.
“This is the reason why we say it is a misrepresentation, he should have been there to find out before writing this. He is blindfolded and lacks education and he doesn’t want to know.”
He then commended Governor Aminu Bello Masari for all the payments he made to the benefiting students in the state, calling members of the public and especially politicians to laud the effort of the governor, in repositioning the education sector and desist from raising unverified issues in the state.
