By Ayo Kehinde
AdamuAdamu, Minister of Education
The Federal Government has heeded the call of education stakeholders to re-open schools in the country starting with exit classes from August 4, while the date for other classes would be determined after another meeting on Tuesday between the Federal Ministry of Education and Chief Executives of examination bodies in the country.
In a statement on Monday by the Director of Press and Public Relations of the Ministry of Education, Ben Ben Goong, “Secondary schools in the country are to reopen as from 5th of August, 2020 for exit classes only. Students have two weeks within which to prepare for the West African Examinations, WAEC, due to start on the 17th of August, 2020.”
He said this decision was taken at a virtual consultative meeting held among the Federal Ministry of Education, Commissioners fo Education of the 36 states, the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, the proprietors of private schools and Chief Examiners of examination bodies.
Disclosing that the meeting also appealed to the Federal Government through the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, PTF, for the safe reopening of schools across the country, he said that would be decided at “another meeting tomorrow (Tuesday) between the Federal Ministry of Education and Chief Examiners of examination bodies, namely, NECO, NABTEB and NBAIS to harmonise their examination dates, which would be conveyed expeditiously by the Federal Ministry of Education.
At the weekly briefing by the PTF, on Monday, Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajuba, expatiated further on the reopening for exit classes when he said that the WAEC examinations would spread to October for Nigerian students. “As part of the agreement with WAEC, all examination common to students in the sub-region would start on August 17, while subjects that are peculiar to Nigerians would start on September 5 and end on October 5.
