The state government would spend N1.5 billion to register 58,000 pupils for the 2024 West African Senior School Certificate Examination this year, according to Tolani Alli-Balogun, Commissioner of the Lagos State Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education.
When discussing the ministry’s activities to mark Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s first year of his second term in office, the commissioner made this statement on Thursday.
Sanwo-Olu vowed not to disappoint Lagosians during his inaugural speech as he took the oath of office for a second term as governor on May 29, 2023.
The commissioner, who spoke at the state secretariat, said, “The administration of Babajide Sanwo-Olu has never defaulted on the payment of WASCCE fees of all public school SS3 students in the four years of Governor Sanwo-Olus’s first term in office. The state government paid over N4.2bn between 2020 and 2023 to keep our promise of full payment of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination fees.
“In the current school year (2024), the governor has approved the sum of N1,571,076,000 as registration fees and other cost for 58,188 SS3 students writing the West African Senior School Certificate Examination.”
Last year, the West African Examination Council, which conducts WASSCE, noted that it had concluded plans to begin computer-based examinations in 2024.
It released the results of the first-ever CBT exam, 2024–First Series, in March this year.
The analysis of candidates’ performance showed that out of the 8,139 candidates that sat the examination, 3,424 candidates representing 42.07 per cent obtained credit and above in a minimum of five subjects (with or without English Language and/or Mathematics).