WASSCE: South-Wests States Agree To Conduct Examinations

The Six South-West States have asked intending applicants to be rest assured, as they are ready to conduct 2020 West African School Certificate Examinations for students in the region.

Recall that on July 8, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, announced that the Federal Government had decided to cancel WASSCE examination, for this year due to the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases.

The South-West states reached this agreement following a unanimous decision taken by the six state governments after a virtual meeting by the Development  Agenda for Western Nigeria DAWN Commission in collaboration with the forum of South-West education commissioners, special advisers on education and the State Universal Basic Education  Board chairmen today July 15.

In a statement after the meeting, the group said “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 sit students for the 2019/2020 WAEC examinations.

At the least, August 3rd, resumption for final year SSS3 students, states should approach the Federal Government at the first instance seeking the postponement of the WAEC exam by at least three weeks from proposed resumption. In the second instance states should directly approach WAEC to seek an extension of the WAEC Examinations to week commencing August 24.

They noted that when schools are reopened, all schools must have ensure that it has in place, incident managers and classroom wardens for every classroom.

Further the statement said Quality Assurance Department must be designated for each state to issue a Safety Compliance Certificate to each school before reopening.

They added that intense advocacy campaigns of the stakeholders would be encouraged. parents, teachers, caregivers, proprietress/headteachers, and the pupils would be duly sensitized on what is expected of them when they 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 prerequisite for accommodation.”

The forum also urged WAEC to encourage the administering the use of Computer-Based Tests while each state should deliberately intensify efforts and invest more in education technology.