Private school owners in Ogun State have raised alarm over new conditions imposed by the state government for students registering for the May/June West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), warning that more than 70 per cent of their candidates could miss the exam if urgent action is not taken.
The proprietors, who spoke anonymously, said the controversy centres on the compulsory requirement for every student to possess a Learner Identification Number (LIN) before being cleared for registration with the West African Examinations Council.
According to them, although the LIN is issued by the state government when a student enrolls in any school — public or private — technical problems with the online platforms used to generate and verify the numbers have created serious bottlenecks.
One school owner explained that the state recently migrated from the OGSERA platform to DIPER, but many students who were previously registered can no longer find their details on the new system.
He added that the government has also directed that Senior Secondary School 3 students who transferred from other states and do not have a LIN must present additional documents before being allowed to register.
These include their Junior Secondary School 3 certificates and complete results from SS1 and SS2. Proprietors described the demand as unrealistic, especially given the limited time left before the registration deadline.
“We are not against reforms,” one of them said, “but the timeline for implementation is too short. Some students may not even be able to retrieve their previous results due to circumstances beyond their control.”
Another proprietor warned that if the policy is not suspended, a large number of private school students across the state may be unable to sit for this year’s examination. A viral message circulating online even claimed that as many as 700,000 students could be affected.
The school owners have appealed to Governor Dapo Abiodun to intervene and urge the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Abayomi Arigbabu, to put the policy on hold until next year to allow schools adequate time to comply.
Responding to the concerns, Arigbabu defended the policy, saying it was introduced to curb examination malpractice and improve student data management. He explained that the LIN system was launched about five years ago to maintain a comprehensive database of students in both public and private schools.
“Every student schooling in the state is supposed to have the Learner Identification Number. It is not something that should be newly sought in SS3,” he said.
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The commissioner dismissed claims that the measure was punitive, alleging that some private schools register candidates who do not eventually sit for the examination.
“If you cannot produce the LIN, we will definitely know that you have something up your sleeves,” he said, while assuring that genuine technical issues with the platform are being addressed.
Arigbabu maintained that the government would not compromise its efforts to sanitise the examination process, though it remains open to resolving legitimate complaints.
The standoff has heightened anxiety among private school operators and parents, as the WASSCE registration deadline approaches.
