Coronavirus: FG to review alternatives on WAEC, schools re-opening

The Federal Government  said final year secondary school students may have to sit for the General Certificate of Education (GCE) in November.

The Minister of State, Education, Mr. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, who stated that that would occur if there is no shift in the West African Examination Council (WAEC)’s time table.

The Minister of State, Education, Mr. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, said this during questions and answer session at the 52nd joint national briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 in Abuja.

Nwajiuba said that government would meet with stakeholders again on July 30, to review the guidelines, provisions and preparations for safe reopening of schools.

He said sitting for the GCE may become the only option for Nigerian students if the country cannot convince WAEC to adjust its examinations as requested by the Federal Government.

His words: “Should Nigeria be able to meet up with the WAEC timetable, there is already a negotiated timeline to move local language subjects such as Ibo, Yoruba and Hausa behind to allow all participating countries the needed time to write the general subjects at the same time.

“WAEC, unfortunately, is unable to wholesomely move the examination but we have also worked out a negotiated timeline with WAEC on what we call peculiar Nigerian subjects which in the language of WAEC are subjects that are only held in Nigeria such as Ibo, Hausa and Yoruba.

“The Ghanaians will take examinations peculiar to them. But they are all in the first part of the time table. So, we will work out a domestication module that will take our peculiar subjects behind after we have done general subjects.”

When asked to comment on the Oyo State Government that cancelled third term, the minister said that “education is on the concurrent list and while the states are expected to work together on common front, especially on the COVID-19 crisis, they are at liberty to evolve some measures on their own.”