WAEC Increases Fees To N18,000, Seeks Govt Support To Procure $3.9m Printing Machine

According to a report Daily Trust, the West African Examination Council (WAEC) has increased its fees.

The exam board introduced a marginal increase of the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) fee.

Mr. Patrick Areghan, Head, Nigeria National Office of the council, stated this while visiting a marking centre in Abuja on Thursday.

He said each student writing the examination now has to pay N18,000 as against the former N13,950.

He noted that the conversion of naira to dollar was a misery and that the upward review of fees was necessary to enable the council render its services efficiently to the Nigerian child.

“There has to be that marginal increase to enable us to do better services. The examiners are now happy as we are able to increase their marking fees through this marginal increase. The money actually went for the payments of examiners to enable us to satisfy them so that they can do the job better,” he said.

On whether the council was planning to introduce the Computer Based Test (CBT) in the conduct of its examinations, Areghan said CBT would only be achieved if the government provided the required facilities to enable it conduct such examinations.

He said WAEC conducts examinations for over 20,000 secondary schools in the country and in 76 subjects and as such it would be difficult to use CBT for its examinations knowing well that a candidate could offer as low as eight subjects.

Speaking, Registrar of Council, Mr Pateh Bah, expressed satisfaction with works carried out by examiners in the centre for prompt release of its results.

Bah said the examiners had worked within the time limit of 45 days to which examination results would be released.

Also, the Chairman of Council, Prof. Ato Essuman, solicited the support of the Federal Government to procure an outstanding printing machine to help the council in its service delivery.