By Demola Akinyemi

Ilorin—Kwara state government has ordered over 5,000 students due for promotion to Senior Secondary School class 3  to repeat the class over failure to pass  English and Mathematics.

The government has also concluded plans to pay the National Examination Council (NECO) fees of all the students who  passed five subjects including English and Mathematics as a motivation to others to pass the core subjects.

State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Alhaji Bolaji Abdullahi,  who disclosed  this in Ilorin yesterday while speaking with newsmen, noted that the development became imperative in order to forestall future occurrence of mass failure of core subjects during the forthcoming national examinations like NECO and WAEC SSCE.

Abdullahi  said that the present administration was committed to qualitative education of its students, adding  that the  government would not compromise the  rising standard of education in the state and condone any development that could frustrate its efforts.

According to him, “Those candidates who scored five credits and above, including Mathematics and English, would have their National Examination Council (NECO) fees paid by the State Government.”

He said further that over   82 per cent of the nearly 25,000 candidates who sat for this year’s SSS2 to SS3 examinations were successful.