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Amid insistence by the Federal Government against reopening schools to enable Senior Secondary School 3 pupils to sit for the West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), the six Southwest states – Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti – have agreed to reopen its schools next month to allow candidates sit for the exam.
Recall Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu reiterated the government’s decision to cancel the conduct of the exam, stating that it was unsafe for the children.
But the Commissioners for Education in the six South West states, special advisers on Education and State Universal Education Board (SUBEB) chairmen made the agreement to reopen schools for SS3 pupils to sit for their final examination at a virtual meeting organised by the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission on Wednesday.
Part of the agreements also reached was the need for Southwest states to implement a 2016 plan to establish a regional examination body akin to the Interim Joint Matriculation Board (IJMB) in the North.
The plan was laid out at the Roundtable on Creating a Collaborative Framework for Education Development and Advancement in Western Nigeria held in Osogbo, the Osun State capital in 2016.
On plans for the conduct of the exam amid the rising cases of the pandemic, the DAWN Commission agreed that all the states would reopen schools for SS3 pupils on August 3 with COVID-19 preventive measures put in place.
According to a statement by the Commission, the states will approach the Federal Government at the first instance to seek a postponement of the WASSCE by at least three weeks from the proposed resumption date.
At the second instance, the states will directly approach WAEC to seek a postponement of the examination to the week beginning August 24.
On resumption, schools are to appoint incident managers and classroom wardens while a designation of quality assurance department will be created for each state to issue a safety compliance certificate to each school before reopening.
Each state will encourage intensive advocacy campaign to stakeholders, including parents, teachers, caregivers, school owners and pupils on what is expected of them when schools resume.
The meeting also called on the WAEC to encourage Computer-Based Tests (CBT) in the future.
