Pastor Akinade Alamu, Chairman, Oyo State Post Primary Schools Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM) has declared that considering measures already put in place by the State government led by Governor Seyi Makinde, noting will stop Oyo from partaking in the 2020 West Africa Senior School Examination (WASSCE).
This is coming on the sideline of recent announcement and counter declaration by the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu that all the secondary schools under the jurisdiction of the Federal government would not partake in this year’s WASSCE school-based examination due to the ravaging Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Speaking on a local radio station, ‘Fresh FM’ programme tagged: ‘COVID-19 Situation Room’, the Oyo TESCOM Chairman condemned the poor funding and handling of the education sector by the Federal Government and wondered the government was opening and locking down schools indefinitely while the aviation and other business sectors are reopening.
He said, “This government at Federal level is not helping things in the education sector. The meagre budgetary allocation for education shows clearly that they are less concerned. They have re-opened airline operation. Do they want to tell us that people would not sit together inside an aeroplane or what?
“This pandemic has come to stay with us and we should do everything possible to manage it until we get curable drugs for the virus. We should not lock down an important sector like education. If we said we are not writing WASSCE this year, how are we sure that the pandemic would have gone by next year. Is the government saying we are not going to write it next year if Coronavirus persists; God forbid?
“The most important thing is to make adequate provision for the safety of our students, which we have done and we would continue to do so as events unfold.
“Before we resume in Oyo state, all the stakeholders in the education sector in the state that includes TESCOM, SUBEB, PTA and others held meetings with the COVID-19 management team in the state to fashion ways forward for school resumption,” he added.
According to Pastor Alamu, pieces of training have been organised for school heads “that also, in turn, returned to their various schools to train teachers on how best they can handle any occurrence of suspected Covid-19 issues”.
He maintained that with all measures put in place by Oyo would partake in this year’s WASSCE examination.
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