By Our Correspondent
Six states of South-West Nigeria have signified their readiness to allow their Senior Secondary School (SSS) students sit for the 2019/2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC).
This was part of resolution of the state governments at the end of an online session held on Tuesday by the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission and a forum of South-West Commissioners for Education, Special Advisers on Education and State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) chairmen.
According to the press release made available to Our correspondent in Ibadan yesterday by the Director-General of (DAWN) Commission, Mr. Seye Oyeleye, the focus of the meeting was premised on the need to jointly agree on modalities for the 2019/2020 WAEC examinations, resumption of schooling activities for SSS3 students and other allied matters.
“The Forum, after careful deliberations, considering peculiarities of each state and options available, reached a consensus on the subject matters and are expressed thus: On WAEC examinations, state Commissioners for Education have signified readiness to allow students sit for the 2019/2020 WAEC examinations. At the least, August 3, 2020 resumption for final year SSS3 students. States should approach the Federal Government at the first instance seeking the postponement of the WAEC examinations by at least three weeks from proposed resumption. At the second instance, states should directly approach WAEC to seek for an extension of the examinations to commence on August 24.
“All schools when reopening should have in place incident managers and classroom wardens for every school and every classroom.
“The designation of the Quality Assurance Department for each state to issue a safety compliance certificate to each school before reopening.
“Encourage an intense advocacy campaign of the stakeholders – parents, teachers, caregivers, proprietress/head teachers and the pupils – on what is expected of them when schools resume.
“Only hostel/dormitory accommodation attached to schools should be provided where available to ease logistics and travel challenges of pupils and teachers.
“Tests and health checks of all pupils and teachers as a pre-requisite for accommodation,” the release stated.
The state governments also urged WAEC to encourage the use of Computer-Based Tests while each state should deliberately intensify efforts and invest more in education technology.
The release urged the South-West states to, as a matter of urgency, consider setting up a regional examination body similar to the IJMB in the northern part of the country to position the region in an increasingly uncertain future.
