16th May, 2017
No fewer than 200 students at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in Edo, have registered for the 2017 basic public examinations, including the University Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
The Camp Coordinator, Mr Solomon Folorunsho, made this known on Tuesday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ohogua, Ovia North-East Local Government Area of Edo.
Folorunso identified the other examinations as those conducted by the National Examination Council (NECO) and West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC).
According to him, 50 IDPs are currently writing the ongoing UTME, while 75 others written the just concluded Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE) and 75 also registered for NECO.
He said the International Christian Centre (ICC), where he is the pastor, had spent over N3 million to register the students for the examinations.
“You may be wondering why we have less number for the UTME. We had wanted to register all of them even with the paucity of funds, but some of them wanted to see the results of their WAEC and NECO before they register for the UTME.
“In spite of this, I am happy to say that some of them who wrote the ongoing UTME did extremely well.
“From the scores we have gotten so far, we have had 266 and 246; in fact, many of them scored above 200. They are simply the best set of children I have had since I started this camp in 1992.”
Folorunsho expressed gratitude to individuals and organisations that had supported the camp since it started admitting.
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He said that the ICC had been responsible for the payment of teachers’ salaries.
“We have engaged and have been responsible for the payment of teachers who put these children through in their studies.
“We do this from the church offering and donations from individuals. Recently however, we got some support from the Victims Support Fund.
“We try as much as possible not to disrupt their education even in the face of paucity of fund.
“Take for instance, we have been spending a lot to get those of them that registered for the UTME to their various centres.
“We have most of them scattered in various parts of the state like Okada, Abudu and far distances to write their examination,” the cleric said.