Gov. Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State

Ekiti State Government has attributed the performance of its students the 2016 June/July National Examination Council (NECO) to introduction of school as well as registration fees for the examination.

Ekiti emerged the best performing State in the results of the examination released on Friday by NECO.      .

Jide Egunjobi, the State Commissioner for Education told journalists at a press conference held after the release of the results that the introduction of the fees make students and parents to be more serious towards their educational pursuits.

“Those who were paying for free registration in public exams without first inculcating discipline and hard work in the students did more harm than good for them.

“An unserious student whose parents never suffered to pay either school fees or WAEC and NECO money may not see reason in being serious and dedicated to his studies

“We found that it was the belief of such students that neither they nor their parents will lose anything after all, if they failed those exams since it was the government that would eventually bear the brunch.

“We backed all these up by fortifying the schools with the right type of books, instructional materials and accorded priority attention to teachers’ welfare.

“We also cancelled manual work such as grass cutting during school hours while our inspectorate division was strengthened to fish out lazy and complacent tutors,” he said.

The commissioner said the current performance would be celebrated by the government to serve as impetus to teachers and students, and would be maintained for a long time.

In the result released by the new Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of NECO, Charles Uwake, Ekiti was declared the best performing state with over 96.31 per cent success.

Edo came second while Abia and Kogi have joint third position. (NAN)