The Benue State Education Quality Assurance and Examinations Board (BEQAEB) has launched a renewed crackdown on illegal school charges and examination malpractices, deploying technology-driven reforms to sanitise the education system in the state.
The Executive Secretary of the Board, Dr. Terna Francis, disclosed this while engaging journalists of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Makurdi, where he offered detailed explanations on BEQAEB’s mandate, enforcement actions and reform agenda.
Dr. Francis said the Board’s regulatory activities are fully anchored in the law establishing BEQAEB, stressing that resistance from some school proprietors was largely triggered by the enforcement of approved standards and fees.
He revealed that BEQAEB recently uncovered cases where schools charged as much as N35,000 for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), far above the approved N10,250, while WAEC candidates were made to pay between N70,000 and N100,000 instead of the official N27,500.
“These illegal collections exploit parents and undermine the integrity of the education system. We will not allow that to continue,” he said.
As part of measures to halt examination fraud, Dr. Francis announced the rollout of the e-Dossier system, a digital platform that captures continuous assessment and examination scores in real time and permanently links candidates to their schools.
According to him, the system effectively blocks miracle centres by preventing last-minute migration of students for external examinations, noting that any suspicious movement is automatically detected and disallowed.
He explained that the government’s decision to strengthen and separate quality assurance from the Ministry of Education was aimed at creating an independent body capable of enforcing compliance across both public and private schools.
Dr. Francis also cited funding as evidence of the administration’s commitment to reform, revealing that education received over 15 per cent of the state budget in 2025 and 25.29 per cent in the 2026 fiscal year, leading to new school construction, renovation of facilities and the recruitment of more than 9,000 teachers through SUBEB.
On examination outcomes, he assured that BECE and Mock-SSCE results conducted in the third term would now be released on schedule and used strictly as the legal basis for promotion into SS1 and SS3.
The BEQAEB boss clarified that no new examination fees had been introduced, maintaining that the N10,250 BECE fee remained unchanged, while handling charges by schools must not exceed N5,000 as directed by the Governor.
He warned that only fees approved under the Revenue Administration Law and captured in the 2026 budget estimates are collectible, adding that defaulters would face sanctions.
Dr. Francis said BEQAEB remains committed to enforcing the law, protecting parents and learners, and restoring credibility, discipline and standardisation in Benue State’s education system.
