The six southwest states of Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti have concluded plans to reopen schools in August to enable Senior Secondary School 3 pupils to sit for the West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
The action goes contrary to the federal government’s advisory that schools should remain shut and not take part in the examination conducted by the West African Examination Council (WAEC).
At a virtual meeting organised by the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission yesterday, commissioners for education in the six states, special advisers on Education and State Universal Education Board (SUBEB) chairmen reached an agreement to reopen schools for SS3 pupils write their final examination.
The director general of DAWN, Mr. Seye Oyeleye, in a statement he issued on yesterday said the decision was part of the resolutions made by the state governments at the end of an online meeting initiated on Tuesday by the commission.
The meeting was held in collaboration with the forum of southwest education commissioners, special advisers on education and the state universal basic education board chairmen.
According to the statement, the meeting was premised on the need to jointly agree on modalities for the 2020 WASSCE, resumption of schooling activities for the Senior Secondary School 3 pupils 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 expresses thus: On WASSCE; state commissioners for education have signified readiness to enroll pupils for the 2019/2020 examination.”
It explained that considering the peculiarities of each state, the forum reached a consensus that at least by August 3, the SSS3 pupils should resume.
It asked the states to approach the federal government and WAEC for postponement of exam by three weeks
“States should approach the Federal Government at the first instance seeking the postponement of the WASSCE by at least three weeks from the proposed resumption. At the second instance, states should directly approach WAEC (the West African Examinations Council) to seek an extension of the WASSCE, to week commencing August 24.”
The forum added that all schools when reopening should have in place incident managers and that wardens should be appointed for every classroom.
It further stated that there would be “intense advocacy campaigns of the stakeholders – parents, teachers, caregivers, proprietress/head teachers, and the pupils – on what is expected of them when schools resume.”
It explained that resumption, schools are to appoint incident managers and classroom wardens.
There will also be a designation of quality assurance department for each state to issue a safety compliance certificate to each school before reopening.
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 forum also agreed on 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.
Similarly, the Ebony State government said it was also planning to reopen schools.
The state governor, Mr. David Umahi, who spoke at a virtual state executive council meeting in Abakaliki, said the reopening of schools will be done in phases.
“We have to start the process that will lead us probably to reopen our schools between August and September,” he said.
He said the government would train teachers and students on COVID-19 protocols before the resumption.
The governor said teachers will undergo COVID-19 tests.
“Reopening of schools will start with the cleaning of the schools. We will fumigate them and then do a random test on the teachers.
“We will also deploy health workers to mount awareness within the communities where the school is situated. COVID-19 is real and we need to be very careful,” he said.
For his part, Mr. Castro Ezama, special adviser on education to the governor of Cross River State, Prof Ben Ayade said “Very soon the pupils will resume. We are concluding arrangements for that to happen. We have not fixed a date yet.”
It would be recalled that the minister of education, Mr. Adamu Adamu, had announced a reversal of the federal government’s decision to allow students to sit for the examination.
He said schools would remain shut and final year secondary school students would no longer write WASSCE until further notice.
The minister of state for education, Mr. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, restated the federal government’s position on yesterday while briefing journalist after the eighth virtual federal executive council meeting.
He said the ministry was still consulting with stakeholders on way forward, adding that WAEC had also started consultations with West African states on a possibility of shifting dates.
“We are still meeting with parents over the decision of the ministry. What the Minister said reflects the true position of the ministry; we are not confident yet that everywhere is safe.
“The numbers from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) are still alarming and we have put this before parents and all the stakeholders in the education ecosystem. A stakeholders’ meeting was convened for Monday.
“WAEC on its part is also negotiating with other West African countries to look at possible shift in date.
“Once they are through with that meeting and hopefully when we are through with the consultation with stakeholders, if there’s any change in the ministry’s position, we will communicate.
“But as it stands, the position of the minister, as communicated to you last week, remains the position of the ministry until further evidence to the contrary or further agreements that may alter those arise.”
Also yesterday, the House of Representatives disagreed with the federal government on WASSCE.
It said the federal government’s position was not well-thought-out and called for a reversal of the decision.
The lawmakers said the decision halted arrangements being made by WAEC and private school owners following the earlier announcement that examination would begin on August 4 and end on September 5.
Besides, it said there is no evidence that the ministry consulted stakeholders before pulling Nigeria out of the examination.
Chairman, house committee on education chairman Prof. Julius Ihonvbere spoke on a Channels television programme Sunrise Daily, said the lawmakers had summoned Adamu and WAEC representatives to a meeting today to discuss the possibility of reversing the decision.
He said lawmakers would back down if the minister would convince members that it is not safe to reopen schools for final year students to sit for the exams.
“The House is inviting the minister and WAEC representative on Thursday for an interactive session to say where do we go from here? What are the options?
“Are we going to wait until the World Health Organisation (WHO) says we have a vaccine and it is available to everybody before the exit classes can write their exam?
“We believe that Nigeria is not the only country involved in this and we say we are the big brother of Africa that our foreign policy is centred around Africa and we try to play a supportive role.
“We have no evidence so far that there was consultation with other countries in West Africa.
“We have no evidence that ministers or commissioners of education in West Africa met, and we have no evidence that even stakeholders in Nigeria were duly consulted before that decision was taken.
“We feel embarrassed that we are giving the impression to the world that since the COVID-19 outbreak we have been doing nothing to prepare, to respond and adjust to the new normal.
“What is required to write this exam is not that complicated. These are not babies, they are not kids. They are not kindergarten or primary school children.
“We wrote to the ministry about four weeks ago that if you are planning to reopen schools, these are certain protocols you must take, basically the same protocols that the NCDC had put out,” he said.
