By Gabriel Dike
Indigent students who cannot register for the yearly West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) due to financial challenges can now heave a sigh of relief, as help has come their way.
An initiative, tagged “Help in the Mirror (HITM)” was recently launched in Lagos to raise funds to give 100,000 indigent students free WASSCE registration from 2023.
The founder of Help in the Mirror, Mr. Theo Akatugba, said the charitable initiative was meant to assist indigent students from recognized public secondary schools in the country register for WASSCE every year, free of charge.
Akatugba said, as the producer of an enlightenment television programme for the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), he observed that many brilliant but indigent students could not afford to register for WASSCE due to financial constraints.
He said: “This situation causes many indigent students to drop out of school. It is the students in this category that HITM seeks to offer compassionate assistance.
“An indigent student is generally identified as one that is poor, probably due to lack of parentage or that the parents or guardian lacked the means to fund his or her academic or intellectual pursuit. Similarly, an indigent student is in most circumstances in a school in Nigeria and possesses good academic performance, which incidentally, due to poor financial state, could not be realised except with external assistance.”
On how indigent students would emerge, Akatugba said principals in public secondary schools were expected to nominate 10 students for evaluation by the HITM selection committee, based on the continuous assessment score report.
He revealed that old students of a school in Agbor, Delta State, have promised to fund WASSCE for 100 indigent students’ of their alma mater.
National president, All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS), lauded the initiative and confirmed that the body dagreed to partner with HITM to provide free WASSCE registration to indigent students.
The national president, who was represented by the Lagos State branch president of ANCOPSS, Alhaja Folashade Moronkeji, acknowledged that some students didn’t have writing materials and in some cases teachers and principals provided such educational materials.
He acknowledged that many students who would have missed writing WASSCE can now heave a sigh of relief with the launch of the initiative.
The Proprietor of Value Plus School, Omole Phase 1, Lagos, Mr. Ebhohimheh Vincent, lauded the scheme and described it as novel in the education sector of the country.
