The Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS) has criticised the Federal Government’s proposed increase in registration fees for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and the National Examinations Council (NECO) examination, insisting that education should never be used as a means of generating revenue.
Speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief, the Ogun State Chairman of ASUSS, Felix Agbesanwa, urged policymakers to consider the economic hardship facing Nigerian families before introducing policies that could make education more expensive.
Agbesanwa acknowledged the rising cost of conducting national examinations, including logistics, printing, security, transportation of examination materials, marking scripts and result processing. However, he argued that the timing of the proposed increase was inappropriate.
“Education should not be a revenue-generating means from the less privileged,” he said, noting that although WAEC and NECO face genuine financial challenges, government must adopt a more consultative approach before implementing such policies.
He stressed that millions of parents are already struggling to cope with rising living costs and should not be burdened with additional examination expenses.
The Federal Government had proposed increasing the 2027 WAEC and NECO registration fee from ₦27,000 to ₦50,000, citing increased operational costs. However, following widespread public criticism, the Ministry of Education suspended the proposal pending broader consultations with stakeholders.
ASUSS maintained that any future decision on examination fees must balance the financial sustainability of examination bodies with the need to ensure affordable access to education for all Nigerian students.
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