This was disclosed in a tweet post by the aide to President Muhammadu Buhari on New Media, Tolu Ogunlesi from his official Twitter handle on Wednesday, July 8, 2020.
Reacting to the development was the former vice President, Atiku Abubakar, on his verified Twitter account.
As a parent and investor in the education sector, I wish to register that the Nigerian government’s policy of unilaterally cancelling the West African Senior School Certificate Examination, held annually by the West African Examinations Council, is not in Nigeria’s best interest.
At a time of the global COVID19 pandemic, it is understandable that an abundance of caution be put in place to save lives. However, caution, without consultation, and thoughtful action, may be counterproductive.
1.5 million Nigerian youths write the West African Senior School Certificate Examination annually. To abruptly cancel this examination is to set back our nation’s youth, and place them behind their contemporaries in other West African countries
This is perilous because Foreign Direct Investments and other economic indicators are tied to the educational indexes of nations
Rather than cancellation, there are better ways to protect the health of Nigerians and prevent the pandemic from escalating
We could mobilise all available public & private infrastructures, including primary schools, stadia, and cinemas, for the examinations. In the alternative, the Federal Government can prevail on WAEC to have staggered examinations with a different set of questions for each shift
I urge this administration to take into account that the lives they are trying to save will be further put at risk
because if this policy is not reversed, tens of thousands, and possibly hundreds of thousands of Nigerians, will breach social distancing rules to cross over to neighbouring West African nations to write their WASSCE, rather than miss a year.
Comments
Post a Comment