The Rivers State Government has said it would sponsor the application fees for students in 199 public schools in the State, writing National Examinations Council (NECO) and National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB), 2020.

State Government disclosed this on Wednesday in a statement from the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, signed by Mrs Sokari Davies, Director, Secondary Education.

Mrs Davies stated that Rivers Government took the decision following strict time frames issued by the national examination bodies in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Education.

She noted that at the closure of submission of completed applications for the examinations, which was on August 31, the State Ministry of Education discovered that 199 Rivers-owned secondary schools met the deadline.

Davies stated: ‘In preparation for this and having regards to the strict time-frames issued by the National Examining Bodies in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Education, the Rivers State Ministry of Education directed all principals of public schools to make submission of their candidates latest on 28th August, 2020, to the Director of Secondary Education in the Ministry.

‘This deadline was later extended to 31st August, 2020. At the close of submissions at 6.30pm on 31st August 2020, 199 schools had made their submissions,’ she said.

Mrs Davies added: ‘These are the only ones that can be sponsored, as the Ministry of Education considers that other schools/candidates are not interested and the Ministry cannot reasonably wait to move on to the next stage of the process, which was concluded early on 1st September, 2020.’

There are 257 state government-owned secondary schools in Rivers. (Daily Sun)

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