South-West states declare readiness for 2020 WASSCE

Commissioners of education of the six South-West states of the country have expressed readiness to sit their respective Senior Secondary School three (SSS3) students for the 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

This is as they have set an August 3, 2020 resumption date for the graduating students, while state governments will be directly requesting the West African Examination Council (WAEC) to postpone the commencement of this year’s WASSCE to August 24.

The request for three weeks postponement from the earlier planned August 3rd commencement date is to allow the students to have at least three weeks to prepare for the forthcoming WAEC.

This was part of resolutions reached at a virtual meeting of the Commissioners of Education, Special Advisers of Education and Chairmen, State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) of the six South-West states and the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission held on Tuesday.

Notwithstanding the opposition of government to the country sitting for the 2020 WASSCE, the state governments will also be approaching the federal government to see the need to ask WAEC to postpone the final year examination for at least three weeks.

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In showing readiness for resumption, the education stakeholders mandated that all schools will be reopening with provisions for incident managers in schools and wardens in each classroom to ensure adherence to COVID-19 protocols.

While the need for sensitization of parents, teachers and school managers was stressed, there was also the resolution that each state details a Quality Assurance department to issue Safety Compliance Certificate before each school is reopened.

Among other resolutions at the meeting include that schools must regularly conduct health checks on all pupils and teachers while only hostels attached to schools should be utilized to house students.

Pointing to an increasingly uncertain future, the meeting, especially, identified the critical need for states of the South West to consider setting up a regional examination body.

Moving forward, the education stakeholders harped on the imperativeness of states intensifying investments in education technology.

In light of this, the stakeholders admonished WAEC to embrace the use of Computer-Based Tests for conducting WASSCE.

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