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By Chika Nwachukwu, Abuja
Some students who were registered to sit for National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB) examinations were not allowed to participate because their state government which registered them failed to release money for the examination.
This was disclosed by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, David Adejo on Tuesday, after monitoring the ongoing examination in Abuja.
Adejo lamented that the state governments were owing the examination body so much that the decision not to allow the students sit for the exams had to be taken.
While refusing to mention the states involved or the amount being owed the examination body, the permanent secretary appealed to state governors to pay their debts so the Board can function well.
“Given that education is on the concurrent list,I want to plead with the state governors because some of them disadvantage their citizens from taking this opportunity. They agree to register students free of charge but they don’t pay these fees to examination body.
“A number of states were not allowed to write this examination because the states did not pay. And NABTEB has to take that decision because previously, they have been allowing them but the debt is growing. These examination papers were made with money, the monitoring is money, the marking is money and the release of results is money,” he said.
Adejo, who expressed satisfaction with the general conduct of the examination which began last week across the country, while advising Nigerians to embrace technical education where they will use skills acquired to earn a living, instead of depending on government jobs after graduation from school.
Also speaking, the Registrar NABTEB, Prof. Ifeoma Isiugo-Abanihe, explained that about 54,301 candidates were sitting for the examination attributing the low number of candidates to their the Board’s stand that no candidates from the states who were in debt will participate.
