According to Nigerian Newspaper, President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday reduced the cost of forms for some terminal examinations like the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, organized by the Joint Admission Matriculation Board, the Senior Secondary School Examination conducted by the National Examination Council, as well as the Basic Education Certificate Examination.
This was revealed by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, after the Federal Executive Council meeting in State House, Abuja.
According to Tolu Ogunlesi, the Head of Digital Communications for President Buhari, on his Twitter handle, @toluogunlesi, who shared the news, the reduction will take effect from January 2019.
He tweeted, “President Buhari has approved the reduction in the cost of Forms for JAMB UTME, NECO SSCE and the Basic Education Certificate Examination. With effect from January 2019, the cost of JAMB UTME Form will drop from N5,000 (250 ZAR) to N3,500 (175 ZAR) and NECO will drop from N11,350 (568 ZAR) to N9,850 (493 ZAR).
“Minister of Education Adamu Adamu announced this just now at today’s #FECBrief. He said President Buhari directed the Ministry to look into the reduction following the significant improvement in revenues being remitted to the Treasury by the Education Agencies.
“The Exam Agencies are not meant to be revenue generating bodies, they’re only supposed to cover costs/operating expenses. The sharp increase in remittances by JAMB(from less than N60m (3M ZAR) in 2010–2016 to >N15 BILLION (6B ZAR)in 2017/18) have shown that the fees being charged could be reduced.”
