The Federal Ministry of Education has announced that it will inaugurate a national committee to harmonize schools and examination calendars hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the 2020 Annual Ministerial briefing in Abuja, on Thursday, the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu made this disclosure during his presentation.
Adamu said that harmonization is necessary so as to bring schools, learners, teachers, and examination bodies on the same pedestal.
The Minister explains that due to the outbreak of COVID-19 by late 2019, the first step taken by the Federal Government to curb the spread was to close down all the teaching and learning facilities nationwide in March 2020.
“Upon closure, we proceeded to float online learning facilities. The major challenges we had were electricity and internet access for teachers and learners.
”Consequently, while some learners continued their education, others, especially in the rural areas could not, thereby placing our learners at different levels of exposure.
“There is, therefore, the need for us to harmonize our schools and examination calendar be it state, Federal or private schools.
”This is because, at the end of the academic year, children in primary schools who want to proceed to our unity colleges will have to write the National Common Entrance on the same day,” he said.
He further added that the national committee comprising of NECO, WAEC, NABTEB, JAMB, and a representative of private school owners among others would be inaugurated before the end of January.
It would be recalled that the Federal Government in 2014, made plans to change the nation’s education policy of 9-3-4 system to a 1-6-3-3-4 education structure, with former Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayyatu Rufai saying the proposed structure would be a re-modification of the current 9-3-3-4 system which came into effect in 2009 when the old 6-3-3-4 system was dropped.
