Nigeria is proposing an option to candidates of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) whose examinations have been cancelled this year due to the threat of COVID-19.
The Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba, during the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 briefing on Thursday, July 23, in Abuja said until a time that the country has decided as safe for SS3 students to take part in WAEC, the General Certificate Examinations (GCE) may become the only option for Nigerian students.
The Minister added that if Nigeria is able to meet up with the WAEC timetable, there is already a negotiated timeline to move local language subjects such as Ibo, Hausa, and Yoruba behind to allow all participating countries the needed time to write the general subjects at the same time.
Nwajiuba also said the ministry will be meeting with relevant stakeholders on July 30 to assess preparations for safe reopening of schools.
The Minister said:
“The Ghanaians will take examinations peculiar to them. But they are all in the first part of the time table so we will work out a domestication module that will take our peculiar subjects behind after we have done generals.
“This will buy us the time we need for all of us to be at par with the rest of West Africa and operating at the same time because the unanimity with which WAEC has always worked is still very important to us.
“Nigeria is not moving away from it, the option would have been to go to November to take the GCE external exams.
Nigeria is carefully studying that if in the event everything fails, we may go to that way.”
