The Sokoto government says it has spent N4.7 billion to register students from the state for external examinations in the last two years.

The Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Ahmed Ala, stated this in an interview on Thursday in Abuja.

Mr Ala said the exams included those conducted by the West African Examinations Council, National Examinations Council, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board and National Board for Technical Education.

He said that the move was part of efforts by the Sokoto government to ensure that all students in the state who were eligible for the examinations sat for them, irrespective of the economic status of their parents and guardians.

The commissioner said that the state government also spends about N66 million on payment of imprests to secondary school principals to take care of their schools’ immediate needs such as minor maintenance works.

According to him, under the arrangement, each of the principals receives N200,000 monthly from the state government as imprest. He said that to motivate teachers in Sokoto, the government had increased their salaries from within the threshold of N20,000 to not less than N70,000, the national minimum wage.

“Before the coming of the present administration, before a teacher gets his salary, it would be almost the end of the next month; the government was always indebted as far as salary was concerned.

“But today, by the 19th, 20th, every teacher would have got his salary, except maybe a delay is coming from his bank,’’ the commissioner stated.

According to him, the Sokoto government is determined to boost enrolment and retention in basic education.

To achieve this, he said that the ministry was sensitising parents and guardians on the need for them not only to enrol their wards but also to ensure that they remained in school until the end of their programmes.

(NAN)