New Telegraph

FG okays schools reopening on August 4

As WASSCE commences August 17

 

The Federal Government has given the nod to students in graduating classes in secondary schools throughout the country to resume academic activities from August 4.

 

In the same vein, the West African Senior Secondary Schools Examination (WASSCE) conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), has been scheduled to commence on August 17. The two-week interval between resumption and examinations is designed to enable the students a window of opportunity to do some revision in preparation for the examinations.

 

These were part of decisions reached at the end of a virtual meeting held yesterday between the Federal Ministry of Education, Commissioners of Education of the 36 states, the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), chief executives of examination bodies and proprietors of private schools in Nigeria.

 

Director of Press and Information, Federal Ministry of Education, Bem Goong, who conveyed the decisions to journalists in Abuja, stressed that the resumption would only be for SS3 students who will be writing the West African Examinations Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and those in JSS3 who will be sitting for Junior Secondary School Certificate Examination (JSSCE) conducted by the National Examinations Council (NECO).

 

“Secondary schools in the country are to reopen as from the 4th of August, 2020 for exit classes only. Students will have two weeks within which to prepare for the West African Examinations (WAEC) due to start on the 17th of August, 2020.

 

“It was agreed that the exit classes should resume immediately after the Sallah break, from the 4th of August, 2020 to enable them prepare for the WAEC examinations scheduled to commence from the 17th of August, 2020.

 

“The meeting also resolved that a passionate appeal be made to the Federal Government through the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 and public spirited Nigerians for assistance to schools across the country to enable them fast track the preparations for safe reopening, as agreed,” Goong said. New Telegraph learnt that key stakeholders in the education sector would be  holding another meeting today to fine-tune the processes of implementation of these decisions.

 

Those expected at today’s meeting include the representatives of the Federal Ministry of Education and Chief Executives of examination bodies namely, NECO, NABTEB and NBAIS to harmonise their examination dates, which will be conveyed to all stakeholders expeditiously.

 

It would be recalled that the Federal Government and WAEC Nigeria had, in the last couple of weeks, disagreed over the clamour for the re-opening of the schools.

 

While WAEC wanted an early but partial resumption of classes for the sake of the final examinations, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, kicked against the idea, vowing that Nigeria would rather lose a whole academic years than expose the children to the risk of contracting COVID-19.

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