Delta State Government says it has since 2008/2009 academic session expended the sum of N3, 687,155,963.09 as running cost for all levies and examination fees for all pupils/students in public primary and post primary schools in the state including external examinations conducted by West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB).
The state Commissioner For Basic & Secondary Education, Professor Patrick Muoboghare who disclosed this to newsmen in Asaba expressed happiness that this magnanimous step taken by the state Government to enable children access education is yielding good dividend in the level of performance of the pupils/students especially in the Senior School Certification Examination conducted by WAEC for which the State Government paid.
“Hitherto, mass failure was recorded in the examination. But in the past three years, there has been notable improvement with candidates having five credits including Mathematics and English Language, as evident in the progressive performance of candidates from 36.34% in 2009/10 to 38.72% in 2010/11 and 49.1% in 2011/12 academic years respectively”, Prof. Muoboghare stressed.
Education Commissioner however, expressed worrisome that in spite of government magnanimity, some students have continued to drift to miracle centres in search of cheap certificates with the aid of their parents which is very unfortunate, stating “this anomaly has continued to depopulate the number of candidates writing Certificate Examinations in the state”.
Prof. Muoboghare said that state Government has spent over N22, 648,963,160.32 through the Ministry of Basic & Secondary Education and the Directorate of Infrastructure in its effort at providing infrastructural development in schools across the state.
Muoboghare explained that 142 primary schools and 34 secondary schools were remodeled with state-of-the-art facilities to provide enabling environment and attract access to education by more children in the state.
“In addition, 13 selected secondary schools are being upgraded across the state, while St. Patrick’s College, Asaba has been completed and commissioned, Nana College Warri and eleven others will be ready for commissioning by the end of the year 2013”, Prof. Muoboghare stated.