No fewer than 250 Internally Displaced Persons in Borno State have joined others to write this year’s West African Examination Council’s papers for senior secondary school students in preparation for entry into universities and other higher institutions of learning.
This would be the first time IDP’S have written WAEC since they were forced out of their homes by Boko Haram insurgents at different times in 2014.
The IDPs, made up of 94 female and 156 male students, were among hundreds of students, whose schools and communities were attacked ‎by Boko Haram, resulting in their displacement.
The 250 IDPs are mostly from Kukawa, Gwoza, Ngala, Bama, Monguno, Guzamala and Nganzai local government areas.
The student IDPs wrote practicals on Wednesday at three WAEC centres, Government College, Government Girls College and ‎Mustapha Umar Elkanemi Arabic Teachers College, all in Maiduguri.
The Chairman, Borno State Emergency Management Agency, Engineer Ahmed Satomi, ‎who monitored the IDPs participation at three centres in Maiduguri, disclosed that the 250 IDPs were those who passed a special mock examinaion conducted for about 1,000 IDPs, who were in final year at secondary schools before they were displaced.
Satomi said that the mock examination was meant to evaluate the IDPs that were able to catch up after undergoing classes and comprehensive tutorials organised for them in camps on the orders of the Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima.
Volunteer tutors, including some local NGOS, some aides of Governor Shettima and some graduates associated with the governor, took part in guiding all the SSS 3 IDPs through WAEC syllabus.
He explained that the IDPs were first evaluated and enrolled into four senior secondary schools, Government Secondary School, Jajeri; Government Girls Second school, Yerwa; Government College, Maiduguri and Government Girls College, Maiduguri, and provided with free uniforms, sandals, bags and books in addition to special tutorials after school hours to enable them to catch up after missing school due to displacement.
“Governor Kashim Shettima released funds to the Borno State Emergency Management Agency, which we used to pay the WAEC fees of all the students. As you know, in Borno, the state ‎government pays for WAEC, but parents pay a counterpart of N6,500 to show commitment. So, what SEMA paid was the counterpart, since the government already paid for all WAEC students across Borno State.
“Mock exam was organized for over 1,000 IDPs but out of that number, 250 did well and were believed to be emotionally and academically set for this year’s WAEC. The governor also asked us to secure JAMB forms for all of them, which is being done. We hope that all of them will do well to become eligible for University admission by end of the year,” Satomi said.
He added that Governor Shettima had authorized the purchase of JAMB forms for the 250 students while some of the 1,000 IDPs, who showed some good signs after the mock examination, were likely to sit for examination to gain entry into other tertiary schools after undergoing more tutorials to prepare them for next WAEC examinations in their communities.
