Niger State House of Assembly has summoned the Commissioner for Education, Hajiya Hannatu Salihu, to appear before its committee on education on April 13.
This is to enable her to explain how the state government was unable to pay N295 million owed to the West African Examination Council (WAEC).
The debt has led to the withholding of results of Niger students by the examination body.
Speaker Abdullahi Bawa read the assembly’s resolution following a motion moved by Mr Mohammed Haruna (APC-Bida II).
Haruna had in his motion called on the state government to pay the backlog of WAEC fees, saying the results of some students were withheld because of non-payment of the outstanding fees.
He said that the state government paid only N50 million out of more than N345 million it was initially owed WAEC, leaving an outstanding balance of more than N295 million.
The lawmaker noted that the development would affect the education of students who were supposed to seek admission into institutions of higher learning using their WAEC results.
Haruna stressed that students whose results were not released were waiting for the government to pay up the debt before their results could be released to enable them to seek admission into tertiary institutions.
Haruna added that the debt was raising concerns among parents and urged the government to settle the debt without further delay. (NAN)
