N1.8 million fee: “WAEC killing destiny of Nigerian students” – Edubox CEO

WAEC, it seems, won't let Edubox help students unless the body pays it N1.8 million. — WAEC, it seems, won’t let Edubox help students unless the body pays it N1.8 million.

Tens of brilliant Nigerian students who should be forging ahead in their academic careers are now being delayed due to a ridiculous money-grubbing policy by the West African Examination Council…it seems.

You would think WAEC, West Africa’s most respected examination body, would prioritise academic progress over money; and you may be wrong.

Edubox, a pro-education non-profit, has finalised arrangements to award N400,000 grants to each of the best performing students in the 2014/2015 WAEC examination.

The students are the ones who led the pack in the 36 states of the federation. The only thing left is for WAEC to release relevant details of these students to Edubox.

But WAEC will do that only at the cost of over N51,300 per student…totalling N1.8 million. In simpler terms: WAEC will charge Edubox that much for daring to help these students.

Edubox wrote WAEC in December requesting information on the best students for the 36 states in Nigeria.

“I was shocked when they wrote us back in January saying we would have to pay N1.8 million to process the data,” Edubox CEO Sanusi Tosin told NewsroomNG on Monday night.

“And that’s just the processing fee, we don’t know how much they’ll demand after the data is processed,” Tosin said.

NewsroomNG contacted WAEC on Monday afternoon and they confirmed to us the students data will not be released if the fee is not paid.

“The students information is not public property,” said an official who works at office of WAEC’s acting head of Test Administration, Dr. F. O. Dacosta.

“What Edubox is asking for is a kind of statistics which is one of the services WAEC provides. We received their letter and replied them with a letter of our own. The letter bears our logo and signature.

“I’m just communicating to you the management’s decision.

“You can meet the management by yourself if you require further details,” he said.

But Edubox insists the policy is ridiculous, counter-productive, anti-progress and anti-education.

“We want to sponsor 36 students with N400,000 each,” Tosin of Edubox said.

He continues:

We’re doing it so these students, especially the indigent ones, can continue schooling. We know N100,000 per academic session cannot cater for all their needs in higher institution. But we also know it can encourage the students and their parents or guardians. All the students need do is provide their admission letters and we’ll give them N400,000 at once. That’s all. But WAEC are the only ones who can identify these students.

I decided to go public with the situation because a lot of destinies are attached to this thing and WAEC is wasting those destinies. Why would they do such? Why would they come up with this useless practice? Who knows? A WAEC employee’s family member may even be affected by this thing. This is very bad.

We’re a new initiative. We just want to make Nigeria better. We want to make students happy and encourage our young people. We don’t want them to drop out of school.

We’ve attached screenshots of the official communication between Edubox and WAEC.

But before you read that, check out WAEC’s vision:

To be a world-class examining body adding value to the educational goals of its stakeholders.

It seems the 36 Nigerian students in question are not part of the “stakeholders”.

Here are the letters…

Text:

“The above named organisation (EDUBOX) hereby request, from your establishment the list of the best outstanding students in the May/June West African Examination Council for the year 2014/2015 Academic session in each of the states in Nigeria.

“It is the aim of the organisation to reward these students, with the purpose of inspiring the younger generation. This platform also, will be used to empower youth that are aspiring to go further in their educational pursuit.”