WAEC’s U-turn: Fresh challenge to states

 
The decision of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) to rescind its initial threat to withhold the results of candidates from 13 states indebted to it has brought relief to the candidates and their parents. At the same time, however, it has thrown up a fresh challenge: the need for state governments not to repeat the embarrassment.
As things stand, it is doubtful if the state governments who have taken up payment of WAEC examination fees for candidates as a policy will not drag the country through this route in the near future. This is in view of the fact that many of the states are currently battling to offset backlog of salaries of their workers, running into several months. This is in addition to huge amounts owed by them to local banks and multilateral financial institutions. Instead of prioritizing education, many of the states embark on grandiose projects which gulp humongous amounts, some of which end up being abandoned.
Fact is that many states took up payment of WAEC examination fees of candidates as a policy to score political points. Consequently, they failed to factor the implications of such policy on their finances. Even where this was done, officials of the states failed to remit the accrued sum to the examination body as and when due, fueling fears that such amounts may have been diverted.

Culled from Daily Times Newspaper.