WASSCE: Lagos To Reopen Schools August 3, Releases Guidelines Monday

The Lagos State public and private secondary schools across the state would reopen their doors on August 3rd for SS3 students who are preparing for the 2020 West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) being conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC).

The guidelines for reopening which is strictly for lesson classes for the students towards the exam would be released on Monday. Tribune Online reports that the time table has not been made public by the examination body.

All other students at both secondary and primary schools, as well as tertiary levels in the state, would still stay at home until further notice.

This development was a fallout of the stakeholders’ meeting held by the director-general of the state’s Education Quality Assurance, Ministry of Education, Mrs Abiola Seriki-Ayeni, with the leaders of various private school owners at the Alausa secretariat in Ikeja on Thursday.

A total of 12 out of 14 private school associations’ leaders in the state, including that of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) and League of Muslim School Proprietors (LEAMSP), among others and some directors in the ministry of education were in attendance.

Speaking separately to our correspondent exclusively on Saturday, the President of NAPPS and chairman of LEAMSP in Lagos State, Chief Musa Olawale and Mr Fatai Raheem, respectively, said they were ready to resume even as preparations towards that are in top gear.

They said there were certain health safety requirements to be met by all schools before they would be allowed to reopen.

They said these requirements bother, among others, on availability of sickbay, registration with government-approved hospitals in case of an eventuality, infrared thermometers and readiness to comply with other safety guidelines and protocols.

They said another condition is that every school would have to apply for reopening through the Ministry of Education portal after meeting the guidelines as ratified by NCDC and subsequently obtain a clearance certificate from the Office of Quality Assurance in each district after physical inspection of the facilities.

On his part, the head of public affairs of the Office of Quality Assurance, Mr Emmanuel Olaniran, said the guidelines for reopening would be made public on Monday.