WAEC might postpone exam again - Minister | EduCeleb
EduCeleb
16th July 2020
Nigeria’s Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajuiba said the West African Examination Council (WAEC) is mulling postponing its examination for the Senior secondary school graduating students.
Ordinarily, the exam takes place between April and June but due to the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic, it was postponed indefinitely at a time.
Last week, WAEC announced that it would be holding the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) between 4th August and 5th September.
A day after, the Nigerian government announced something contrary saying that students in its unity colleges would not be writing the exam.
Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu even appealed to state governments to also tow its line by refusing to participate in the exam in the interest of public safety.
Analysts have described the inconsistency in government’s stance within a day in controversial terms and stakeholders have continued to call on the federal government to review its position.
Education is in the concurrent legislative list and each state can decide the pattern of its educational progress.
Already, nineteen states in Northern Nigeria have backed out of the sub-regional exams while seven states in the south have already indicated that the students in their care would be writing the exam.
However, the Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba hinted that exam may not hold on the scheduled date in an interview with State House correspondents at the end of the eighth virtual Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by the President Muhammadu Buhari.
Nwajiuba added that the federal government’s position on the issue is not cast in stone.
In his words, “WAEC, on its own part, is also negotiating with other West African countries to look at possible shift in date and once they are through with that meeting and hopefully when we are also through with the consultations, if there is any change in the ministry’s position, we will communicate.”