Kogiflame
The Kogi State Government is to sanction any school that bypasses the State Ministry of Education in the registration of National Examination Council (NECO) Examination.
The State Commissioner for Education Mr. Wemi Jones made this known during a meeting with some school heads in Lokoja.
He stated that the State Government has invested a lot of funds in Education and will not allow bad elements in the sector to sabotage the gains already made in the education ecosystem.
The Commissioner who was represented by the Acting Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mrs. Barikisu Omolayo Onazare, noted that the State Government allocation of 30% of the State Annual Budget to Education was to ensure that every child of school age had access to quality, accessible and affordable education and would not tolerate anyone that wants to draw the hands of the clock back.
According to him, bypassing the Ministry in NECO or any other Examination registration would henceforth be regarded as a serious offence by the Ministry.
Speaking earlier, the NECO Desk officer Mr. Paul Baba said some schools in the State deliberately bypassed the Ministry in the 2025 NECO Registration.
He decried the unwholesome attitude of some schools in trying to undermine the Ministry by conniving with NECO staff in the State to sabotage the Ministry and the State Government.
According to him, the ministry is aware of a syndicate in the State NECO office who connive with them to collect half of the money meant for clearance in the Ministry and clear them without clearance from the Ministry.
He noted that this will not be allowed to continue as the Ministry might consider writing to the NECO headquarters to stop such Schools from writing the Examination.
Responding, representative of one of the Schools in attendance, Mr Sunday Joseph of Demonstration Standard College, Onyukoko, Okene pleaded for lenience on behalf of the Schools and promised that such ugly trends would not happen again.
