The Federal Ministry of Education through the Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba has stated that students may be asked to sit for the General Certificate Examinations (GCE) which is usually held in November as the country may fail to meet up with this year’s West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) timetable due to the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging the country.
The former Chairman of TETFund Board of Trustees who made this disclosure during the Presidential Task Force (PTF) meeting on COVID-19 on Thursday explained that the shift may become necessary since the WASSCE cannot be rescheduled for any reason. The decision was made to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among students who usually gather in large numbers during the yearly examination.
According to Mr Nwajuiba, the only option would be to take the GCE exams in November. The GCE is a private examination which is only offered in November and the results are available by December. “In the guideline, there is a checklist of the requirements to be put in place and we have given a cut off date so we can know who needs help; We need to know if the teachers cannot be provided with masks if the school is unable to do that we need to know ahead because states that have given dates for resumption of schools are setting a timetable along the lines we have already explained and they are free to do this," He said.
The Minister further added that “Many states have come to say they are unable to meet up with that date that is why the minister requested WAEC give us and the schools some time to meet up”.
He said the government will work out a ‘domestication module’ that will take “our peculiar subjects such as Ibo, Hausa, Yoruba behind after we have done general (subjects). This will buy us the time we need for all of us to be at par with the rest of West Africa and operating at the same time because the unanimity with which WAEC has always worked is still very important to us.
However, Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, and Liberia have begun discussions on postponing the WASSCE.
