Mr Benjamin Bamidele, an Education Counsellor, on Tuesday called on the Federal and State Governments to urgently resolve the impasse over the conduct of the 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
Bamidele made the call during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti.
He said such quick and amicable settlement of the impasse occasioned by measures toward curtailing COVID-19 spread was to secure the students’ future academic performances.
According to him, the endless discussion and buck-passing between the Federal and State Governments over the conduct of the examination will only compound the challenges confronting the nation’s education sector.
“Apart from those challenges associated with COVID-19, the education system has for a very long time been affected with enormous challenges of inadequate manpower and poor remuneration.
“No nation can be greater than the level of its academic standard and the socio-economic status of any developing country like Nigeria depends largely on the viability of its education system.
“Rather than engaging in endless meetings on the issue, both the Federal and State Governments still have ample time to put in place adequate arrangement for the smooth and safe conduct of the examination,” he said.
Bamidele urged the Federal Government to consider the various suggestions by education stakeholders like the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools and the National Parent-Teacher Association toward quick resolve and amicable settlement.
The education counsellor also called on the government to use the opportunity provided by the closing of schools over COVID-19 to embark on massive reformation of the nation’s education system to conform to global acceptable standard.
“To me, this post-COVID-19 regime has provided a veritable platform for education stakeholders to redefine, redesign and restrategise in giving our education system the desired facelift and direction.
“We need to seek better alternative for continuous learning to take place in view of the present development over COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is high time we give the sector the needed financial backing, the conducive learning environment through adequate infrastructure, manpower and other facilities to aid effective and uninterrupted teaching and learning,” he said.
