By MBAFAN ADE, Abuja –
The Nigerian has fixed the conduct of this year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for August 4 to September 5, three months behind schedule.
Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba, who announced this in the nation’s capital, Abuja on Monday, enjoined parents and guardians to note of the rescheduled dates.
The minister’s announcement, during the daily briefing by the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, came hours before the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), said it recorded 575 new cases of COVID-19, which had necessitated the hurried closure of schools leading to the three-month delay in the conduct of of this year’s WASSCE and other examinations.
It also came as the Minister of Environment, Muhammad Mahmood, also announced the commencement of decontamination of schools across the country against the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic that has so far claimed a total of 654 lives in Nigeria.
Mahmood, who also made this known during the PTE briefing in Abuja, said the fumigation exercise, which began on July 6, was in preparation for the anticipated resumption of class activities.
Assuring his ministry had enough hands-on ground to carry out the disinfection exercise, the Minister 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.”
On the reason for the delay in the commencement of the process was delayed, Mahmood said the delay was deliberate and meant to ensure the chemicals were effective enough when the schools resume.
The Environment Minister further said: “The delay is because it is better to disinfect and decontaminate within a short period of time, so that the kids will be going back into these classes when they have been freshly decontaminated.
“This is because the chemicals we use are chemicals that are not long lasting; they have short contact time to do their job.
“So, we will be getting this done before Monday when they (school children) will be back to use these classes,” he said.
He assured parents that the schools would be safe for learning activities.
“So, it is between Tuesday and the rest of the week. We have enough teams and people that we will be engaged to get that done.
“Be rest assured that your kids will be returning to a safe environment when they resume.”
The Education Minister had also announced that interested candidates would be allowed to conclude online registration for the year’s National Examination Council (NECO) senior Secondary school examination.
Nwajiuba said the Federal Ministry of Education would meet with the various Education stakeholders, including the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) on July 7, to discuss the modalities on how the suspended final examination will be conducted.