Senator Solomon Adeola has secured the payment of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) fees of 2000 indigent students across Ogun State.
This development comes following the recent payment of Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) fees for 4,000 indigent students in the state as well.
The lawmaker, in a statement signed by his Media Adviser, High Chief Kayode Odunaro, explained that the number of the beneficiaries could have been more than 2000, due to the inability of some of the students to get their Learners’ Identification Number (LIN) before the deadline set by WAEC, which expired on Tuesday night.
The statement, had it that the indigent students whose parents and guardians could not afford the fee were drawn from a total number of 218 schools made up of 90 schools from Ogun West senatorial district, 68 schools from Ogun East senatorial district and 60 schools from Ogun Central Senatorial district with Abeokuta South LGA and Ado Odo Ota LGA having the highest number of students of 416 and 403 respectively.
Senator Adeola, who is the Senate Committee Chairman on Appropriations, stated that he got to know of the plight of the students from a discussion with some constituents who came to commend him for his free JAMB enrolment for students, stressing that if he had been briefed earlier well before the closing date set by WAEC, more students would have benefited.
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“I got to know about the plight of these students from a top government official from my district who said that just as many parents and guardians could not afford the cheaper JAMB fees of N7200, many others cannot pay the higher examination fee for their wards. For me, as a guiding principle, finance must not be an impediment to the educational advancement of my people. I decided to come in immediately, and the number of beneficiaries would have been more but for the closing date,” he stated.
The lawmaker assured his commitment to human resources development through the facilitation of educational infrastructure, scholarships, and bursary schemes, as well as personal philanthropic gestures, such as paying examination fees for students whose parents and guardians cannot afford to do so.
Mrs. Omowale Afolabi, a parent residing in Eleweran, Odeda LGA, whose child benefited from the exercise, said she cannot afford the fee as two of her children are already in higher institutions.
Mrs Afolabi appreciated the good gesture of the Senator, saying her child would have missed partaking in the examination.
School principals from the various schools that benefited from the exercise were full of praise for the senator as it is a sad development for some of their brilliant students to miss qualifying examination as a result of a lack of funds.