The Federal Government, on Thursday, says final year secondary school students may have to sit for the General Certificate of Education (GCE) in November if there is no shift in the timetable of the West African Examination Council (WAEC).
The Minister of State, Education, Mr. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, said this while answering questions at the 52nd joint national briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 in Abuja.
Nwajiuba said that government would meet with stakeholders again on July 30, to review the guidelines, provisions and preparations for safe reopening of schools.
According to him, sitting for the GCE may become the only option for Nigerian students if the country cannot convince WAEC to shift its examinations as requested for by the Federal Government.
“Should Nigeria be able to meet up with the WAEC timetable, there is already a negotiated timeline to move local language subjects such as Ibo, Yoruba and Hausa behind to allow all participating countries the needed time to write the general subjects at the same time.
“WAEC, unfortunately, is unable to wholesomely move the examination but we have also worked out a negotiated timeline with WAEC on what we call peculiar Nigerian subjects which in the language of WAEC are subjects that are only held in Nigeria such as Ibo, Hausa and Yoruba.
“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 general subjects.”
When asked to comment on the Oyo State Government that cancelled third term, the minister said that “education is on the concurrent list and while the states are expected to work together on common front, especially on the COVID-19 crisis, they are at liberty to evolve some measures on their own.”
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Centre for Disease and Control (NCDC) has confirmed 604 new cases of the coronavirus pandemic, with total number of infections rising to 38,344 in the country.
The NCDC made this known on its official twitter handle late on Thursday.
It added that 20 deaths were recorded in the country.
According to the NCDC, till date, 38,948 cases have been confirmed, while 16,061 cases have been discharged, with 833 deaths recorded in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Data released by the centre showed that the latest COVID-19 infections were reported in 20 states and the FCT, with Lagos State – the country’s epicentre of the disease, having the highest number of infected people (203).
A breakdown of the data provided by the NCD showed that Oyo recorded 87 cases, while FCT had 79 new cases.
Others were Edo – 41; Osun – 35; Ogun – 24; Rivers – 22; Kaduna – 22; Akwa Ibom – 20; and Plateau – 18.
Delta recorded 9 cases, Ebonyi – 9; Imo – 8; Enugu – 5; and Kano – 5; Cross River – 5 ; Katsina – 4; Nasarawa – 3; Borno – 2; Ekiti – 2; and Bauchi – 1.
It noted that a multi-sectoral national Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), activated at Level 3, would continue to coordinate national response activities across the country.
Health Minister, Osagie Ehanire, said that the 36 states and the FCT would receive N100 million each to boost their COVID-19 response efforts.
Ehanire said this at the bi-weekly Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 briefing on Thursday.
“I am pleased to mention that all states of the federation, including the FCT are receiving support from the COVID-19 response through the Regional Diseases Surveillance Enhancement (REDISSE) Project.
“With this support, all states of the federation will receive N100 million to enhance high impact priority response activities.
“The soon-to-be-reactivated BHCPF will join the funding pool,” he said.
