NIGERIA’S season of policy reversals is becoming an embarrassing hallmark of governance. The latest addition is the ill-conceived decision by the Federal Ministry of Education, the West African Examinations Council and the National Examinations Council to raise the registration fees for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination and NECO examinations from N27,000 to N50,000.
Following widespread public outrage, the authorities suspended the increase within 24 hours.
The suspension, however, is merely an afterthought designed to douse public anger. In a country where the minimum wage is N70,000 a month and about 133 million people live in extreme poverty, such a punitive increase should not be suspended; it should be scrapped outright.
WAEC was charging N30,000 before proposing an increase to N50,000, representing an 82 per cent hike, while NECO’s increase amounts to 66.7 per cent. Such disproportionate increases are unreasonable, insensitive and regressive.
Under Tunji Alausa, the Minister of
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