The Edo State Government has extended the registration for JSS 3 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) by two weeks and reopened the portal for Primary 6 BECE applications to enable more pupils to register and participate in the examinations.
This was disclosed by the Commissioner for Education, Dr. Joan Osa-Oviawe, while addressing leaders and members of Edo State’s chapter of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS).
According to her, “We have agreed now that for this year only, we are going to maintain the status quo to rectify the situation. For JSS 3 BECE exam, we have opened the portal for another two weeks thereby extending the exams by two weeks but for primary 6, it’s still going to hold on May 13th, and beginning today, we are reopening the portal for those who have not registered and we are not charging any penalty.
“We just want to make sure that every Edo child who is supposed to write this exam is able to write it and that we, at the Ministry of Education, are in a position to properly receive, analyze and release these results to the public.”
She added, “Based on that and the need for us to make sure that all the children of Edo State are able to write their exams in a conducive atmosphere and all the logistics are in place, we have acquiesced to maintaining the status quo this year.”
Reassuring the government’s commitment to sustain the investment in the education sector, the Commissioner continued, “We at the ministry have a disciplined way of doing things. So, if we are saying that basic education certificate examination, because it’s a certificate class, the exam must count and part of the exam counting is that we must now apply some rigour to how we conduct it.
“The other reason why we said that students have to be moved around to exam centers is because we want to ensure that the exams are written under conditions that are the same across the board.
“We have been doing reforms, now we want to be able to track Edo State children’s learning. We are seeking credible and factual answers to questions the governor has asked concerning teachers, teaching, learning, and measurement of learning. One way we can gauge how well these students are learning is through these exit exams. At the end of the exams, we want to be able to analyze the answer scripts of these students and be able to tell parents and everybody in Edo State how well the candidates did and in what questions, evaluate how well they were able to understand the questions and if the questions were asked confusingly.”
She added, “Our goal in the Ministry of Education is that we are trying to go back to the primary purpose of the ministry, which is policy, regulatory oversight and examinations.”
Earlier, the Public Relations Officer of the Edo National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools, Uteme Daniel, urged for increased collaboration between the association and government.
