‘First school leaving certificate not cancelled in Edo’
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State has said that the First School Leaving Certificate has not been cancelled in the state.
This is contained in a statement on Friday in Benin by the state Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Chris Nehikhare.
Nehikhare was reacting to the criticism by some groups in the state of the automatic promotion for primary five and primary six pupils in the 2020 academic session.
He explained that the automatic promotion was necessitated by prevailing circumstances in 2020, adding that while considering the reopening of schools in 2020 at the expiration of the nationwide lockdown due to the ravaging coronavirus, emphasis was on the conduct of some major examinations.
The PDP image-maker mentioned the examinations as those by WAEC, NECO, NABTEB, BECE (Basic Education Certificate Examination) and common entrance into unity schools and not the primary six examinations.
He explained further that the Minister for Education had stated that children at the lower level would not be able to comply with COVID-19 protocol.
“Subjecting children of that age to write examination that spans for about five hours was considered a breach of COVID-19 protocol and unsafe by the Edo State Government.
“Hence, in Edo State due to the prevailing circumstances in 2020, at a meeting of stakeholders in education, it was decided that continuous assessment be used to grade the pupils and issue them primary six certificates.
“Under the current system of education, examination is not scored on 100 per cent final examination; the final score is a cumulative of test marks and then some percentage of the final examination.
Even the new national policy on education states that primary six examinations shall be based on continuous assessment,” he said.
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Nehikhare also disclosed that education in the state was not suffering as alleged, adding that on the contrary, government’s investment was yielding bountiful results and it was the envy of many states who were presently adopting the state’s Model.
He also noted that the conduct of primary six examinations was not to serve as a requirement for entering junior secondary school, but to provide an opportunity for a child leaving primary school to write a certificate examination hence, it was called first school leaving certificate.
