Nigeria, four other countries discuss postponement of WASSCE

Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, and Liberia have begun discussions on postponing the West African Secondary School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE), an official has said.

The Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, said this in Abuja on Friday.

He said Nigeria and the four countries are considering a new date for this year’s WASSCE, which Nigeria has temporarily pulled out from.

“We met with WAEC on Monday and (we) have agreed to further consult with four other countries on a new examination date,” he said.

Efforts to get a reaction from WAEC on the discussions were unsuccessful as its spokesperson, Damian Ojijeogu, did not respond to calls and messages sent to him.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the Nigerian government reversed its earlier announcement on the resumption of schools. It also said no Nigerian school will participate in the WASSCE earlier scheduled for August 5 to September 5.

The decisions were to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among students.

WAEC

Secondary school graduating students who live in the five English-speaking countries write the WASSCE, which is organised by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC).

This year’s examination was postponed indefinitely in April after it was earlier scheduled to commence in May.

It was postponed after schools were shut down across the countries in a bid to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Apart from postponement of its examination, WAEC also suspended its 68th Annual Council meeting scheduled for Liberia from March 23 to 27, 2020.

The council made the decision to postpone the annual meeting after its 176th special international A & F Committee meeting in Accra.