South-west states to reopen schools on August 3 for WASSCE

The six south-west states have agreed to reopen schools in August to enable graduating students sit for the West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

The states are Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti.

The states’ commissioners for education and special advisers on education and State Universal Education Board (SUBEB) reached the agreement at a virtual meeting organised by the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission on Wednesday.

They agreed on the need for south-west states to implement a 2016 plan to establish a regional examination body similar to the Interim Joint Matriculation Board (IJMB) in the north.

A statement by the DAWN commission said the south-west states will reopen schools for SS3 pupils on August 3 with COVID-19 preventive measures put in place.

DAWN said the states will approach the federal government to seek a postponement of the WASSCE by at least three weeks from the proposed resumption date.

The states will later approach WAEC to seek a postponement of the examination to the week beginning August 24.

On resumption, they said schools are to appoint incident managers and classroom wardens while there will also be a designation of quality assurance department for each state to issue a safety compliance certificate to each of the schools before reopening.

They also added that each state will encourage intensive advocacy campaigns to stakeholders, including parents, teachers, caregivers, school owners and pupils on what is expected of them when schools reopen.

They also called on WAEC to encourage Computer-Based Tests (CBT) in the future.

Earlier in the month, the federal government reversed its decision to reopen schools. It also withdrew students of Unity Schools from writing the WASSCE scheduled for August 5 and September 5.

The examination was initially postponed indefinitely to check the spread of COVID-19.

Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, minister of state for education who broke the news, appealed to state governments who have agreed to reopen schools to reconsider the action due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nwajiuba also reiterated on Wednesday that schools should remain shut and not take part in the examination as it is not yet safe for academic activities to resume in schools across the country.