The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) and the National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN) have sounded the alarm about a possible chaos and distortion in the education sector should state governments enroll their children and wards for the 2020 West African School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) without the participation of the federal government-owned schools.
It would be recalled that the recall that the minister of education, Mr. Adamu Adamu had last week announced the cancellation of reopening of schools for graduating pupils in the primary and secondary schools to write their examinations.
The reopening was slated for August 4.
Oyo State countered the cancellation and reopened schools for terminal students saying it was ready to allow its students to write WASSCE if the West African Examination Council (WAEC) would go ahead to conduct it as planned.
However, speaking in separate interviews, the national treasurer of the NUT, Mr. Segun Raheem and the National President of NAPTAN, Mr. Haruna Danjuma urged states to cooperate with the federal government.
Raheem said there was a stakeholders’ meeting with the federal ministry of education and other government agencies concerned with the COVID-19 pandemic in which NUT was present, and where it was agreed that anything that would lead to chaos should be avoided.
“We all know that education is on the concurrent list in the constitution and that is why when the federal government said its schools would not open now, and advised the state governments to key into that. NUT has asked every state chapter to look into the peculiarities of their states and be guided accordingly.
“Some states have gone far in preparing their terminal students for their final examinations. I am from Lagos State and I can say boldly that the Commissioner for Education has done a lot in this respect. However, schools cannot be reopened unless it is safe to do so.
‘Before the pandemic got to this level, the NCDC said each state should prepare at least 300-bed isolation centre, how many states were able to do that?
“We have to be careful not to use our children as laboratory rats. If the affected students sit for WASSCE now, will they be admitted to the university immediately? No. Some countries reopened schools and shut them down almost immediately. It is not appropriate that some states will sit for WASSCE and others will not,” he said.
Raheem also noted that it would not be proper to compare Nigeria with other member states of the West African Examinations Council, WAEC, saying the countries were not up to four states in Nigeria in terms of population.
While empathising with private school owners and teachers, Raheem said it would be in the best interest of all if schools are reopened in a safe environment.
For his part, Danjuma said even if it is the National Examinations Council (NECO), solely owned by Nigeria, nobody should contemplate some states sitting for WASSCE while others would not.
“WAEC is an international body and the examination it conducts is recognised globally. It won’t be appropriate for it to handle examination for a few states and others won’t take part. I advise state governments to liaise with the FG and do the needful. I also hope the FG would have a rethink about the issue too,” he stated.
Ekiti State is also planning to reopen its schools for final year students next week.
