By Ndahi Marama

Maiduguri—All students of Borno State public schools, particularly senior classes (SSIII), have to sit for a mock entrance examination this week, in Mathematics and English Language, to qualify for payment of WAEC/NECO fees by the state government.

According to the government, those who cannot make it this year would have to wait till next year.

State Commissioner for Education, Mr. Musa Kubo, disclosed this yesterday when he paid a visit to students and teachers of Women Teachers College, Government Girls Secondary School and Mafoni Senior Day Secondary School, all in Maiduguri.

This directive is coming two years after public schools in the state were closed down due to activities of insurgents, but reopened last month.

Kubo said Borno State government, under Governor Kashim Shettima, had been paying the fees of WAEC/NECO for students every year, adding that with the closure of schools in the state in the past two years, some of the students, who had overstayed at home without reading, might not be fit to write the 2016 WAEC/NECO.

He said there was need for the students of SSIII to undergo the test, so that those who passed the mock exams would have their WAEC/NECO fees paid by the government.

According to him, government will not be happy to expend millions of naira on examination fees when a large number of the students would not perform well.