Just like Amotekun, the six Southwest States – Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo, Osun and Ekiti – have agreed to reopen schools next month to enable Senior Secondary School 3 students to write the West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
The decision was taken at a virtual meeting organized by the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission on Wednesday. Commissioners for Education in the six states, special advisers on Education and State Universal Education Board (SUBEB) chairmen reached the agreement. The schools will be opened for SS3 pupils to write their final examination.
The meeting also agreed on the need for the Southwest states to implement a 2016 plan to establish a regional examination body akin to the Interim Joint Matriculation Board (IJMB) in the North.
The plan was laid out at the Roundtable on Creating a Collaborative Framework for Education Development and Advancement in Western Nigeria in Oshogbo, the Osun State capital in 2016.
The decision of DAWN can be described as another milestone towards collective development projects of the Southwest states. Some of other prominent development projects that have been successfully carried out collectively are Oodua Investment and the recent Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN) codenamed Operation Amotekun (Leopard).
DAWN is created to foster regional integration and cooperation as a catalyst for decentralization process. It is meant to establish models that can validate the influence of the integration process in the evolution of result-oriented decentralization.
Since the formal inauguration of the DAWN Commission in July, 2013, the commission has embarked on the region’s sustainable development as a people. Thus, the decision of the DAWN Commission is another milestone towards the evolution of decentralization that many people in the Southwest region are advocating.
However, the Federal Government on Wednesday reiterated its advisory that school should remain close and not take part in the examination that will be conducted by the West African Examination Council (WAEC).
DAWN Commission in a statement said the states would reopen schools for SS3 pupils on August 3 with strict adherence to COVID-19 preventive measures.
The statement added that, all the six states will approach the Federal Government at the first instance to seek for the postponement of the WASSCE by at least, three weeks from the proposed resumption date.
Also, the states are also expected to approach WAEC and seek for at least three weeks postponement of the examination to August 24.
Also, schools are to appoint incident managers and classroom wardens when the school resumes.
States are to establish quality assurance department that will issue a safety compliance certificate to each school before reopening.
Each state will promote intensive advocacy campaign to stakeholders, which will include parents, teachers, caregivers, school owners and people on what is expected of them when school resume.
DAWN also called on WAEC to encourage Computer-Based Tests (CBT) in the future.
