The Federal Government has stated that it is likely to exempt exceptionally intelligent children from the age limit of 18 years, and they may be allowed to write the West African School Certificate Examinations, (WASSCE) and the National Examinations Council (NECO), News About Nigeria reports.
The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, disclosed this on Thursday while speaking during a tour of the Federal Government Academy, Suleja.
He stated this criterion would be developed to guide those he described as special children.
The minister pledged the commitment of the government to provide the needed support to help upgrade the school to what it should be.
“This is the only school of its kind in the country where we are supposed to assemble students who demonstrate special attitude and capacity to come here for special training.
“For us, we need to showcase the school and for us to do that, we need to see that the necessary supportive infrastructure is there and that the academic environment is suitable for that purpose.
“Maintenance has been a problem. What we have seen doesn’t answer our expectations of the type of school that it should be. They have achieved some mileage but that is not the destination we are looking at.
“The principal has done her bit within the limited resources available to her and it’s probably one of the few places where students are supposed to be here free and not pay anything, unlike some other places where they pay small charges here and there.
“We are going to come in with a very massive support to elevate and bring the place to the standard that it’s supposed to be.
“What we have seen is a general decay across schools in the country. It is worst in many places at the lower tier of government but we have to act to make sure that schools are environments where students want to be, where they can learn and socialise, and not places they want to come and go back home quickly,” he stated.
