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Gabriel Dike
The National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) has appealed to the Federal Government to reconsider its stand on the suspension of 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSSCE).
National President of the association, Mr Yomi Otubela, who made the plea at a virtual news conference in Lagos, yesterday, said reconsideration of the WAEC organised WASSCE and the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) by the National Examination Council (NECO), was to ensure emotional wellbeing of the already traumatised students.
He said private schools under NAPPS were ready to resume with strict adherence to the safety protocols as rolled out by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
“To avoid emotional trauma, the SS3 students will be subjected to as a result of the cancellation of the WASSCE, we advise government to deploy the services of clinical psychologists.
“This is to evaluate the state of minds of these students, whenever they are ready to sit for these examinations, due to mental trauma that will arise as a result of the suspension.
“We are talking about the rigorous preparations put in by the students and knowing full well, that their counterparts in other countries will write the ex examinations,” he said.
According to him, there is need to avoid a situation where Nigerian students would be forced to seek an alternative way of writing these examinations, by approaching neighbouring countries such as Ghana. It will not be good for the image of the country.
“As a result of a prolonged closure, majority of students may likely lose interest in education and embrace social vices inimical to their wellbeing and public safety as well,” he said.
Otubela said that, after announcement of the suspension of the examinations, parents of students in private schools had started approaching management of schools to demand for refund of the fees paid for their children’s WASSCE. Private schools had already remitted money to the examination bodies. Their reasons are premised on the decision to utilise the refunds to approach other neighbouring countries, so that their children can sit for 2020 WASSCE outside the country,” the president said.
