Fed Govt asks states to open schools as WASSCE begins August 4

THE Federal Government on Monday advised state governments to reopen their schools to enable primary 6, Junior Secondary School 3 and Senior Secondary School 3 pupils prepare for their exit examinations.

Although the government did not say when Primary 6 and JSS 3 would commence the National Common Entrance Examination and Basic Education Certificate Examination or their internal examinations, it was clear that SS3 would start their West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) August 4.

The disinfection of schools against the spread of COVID-19 begins today preparatory to the resumption.

The Minister of State for Education, Mr. Emeka Nwajiuba and the Minister of Environment, Muhammad Mahmood , made these known during the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja on Monday.

Nwajiuba explained that a decision on dates for the National Examinations Council (NECO), National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB) would be taken after the WASSCE which ends September 5.

He said: “As soon as we begin WAEC on August 4 and end it on September 5, we will take up NABTEB and NECO exams. Parents please take note.

“Last week, the chairman of the PTF (Boss Mustapha) announced that school facilities will be available for those who want to go into revision classes.

“The idea here is that we have a whole month from now till then (the examinations). The states who are willing should make their schools available for their children to revise.

“We have done the most we can. Our representative at WAEC(West African Examination Council) confirmed this(yesterday) afternoon that the date allotted will be from the 4th of August through to the 5th of September. Local timings will be published.”

The minister also said that officials of the Ministry of Education would meet with those of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, the Nigeria Union of Teachers and other stakeholders today to finalise the dates announced by the government.

Nwajiuba said :”We will be asking that those who are not prepared yet should please go and prepare.

“We are continuing with registration for NECO for those who have not concluded registration along those lines, this is the time also to update and get registrations done.”

Also, the Minister of Environment, Alhaji Mahmood, explained that the decontamination of schools was delayed because the Federal Government wanted enough chemicals to be available.

He said the ministry now has enough chemicals and teams on the ground to carry out the disinfection.

Mahmood said: “Earlier, I told you that we have sat with the Ministry of Education and we have the list of all the schools that need to be disinfected before resumption. Well, what we plan to do now is to do (decontaminate) the centres that will be used.”