The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has said it would work out the clash between its timetable for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School candidates and that of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) which begins tomorrow.
WAEC Nigeria’s Head, Public Affairs, Mr. Demianus G. Ojijeogu, told The Nation at the examining body’s headquarters in Yaba, Lagos, that the Council was in touch with the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), and would work out the clash “internally and administratively”.
He assured that candidates would not have to sacrifice one examination for the other.
“I assure you that no candidate would miss their exams. We are working on it. The JAMB Registrar is in touch with the WAEC Head of National Office and we will sort it out internally,” he said.
JAMB Public Relations Officer, Dr Fabian Benjamin, also said the board had received assurance from WAEC that there would be no clash.
“The Registrar has reached out to the HNO and he was assured that there would be no clash,” he said.
According to the WASSCE timetable, WAEC scheduled two subjects, Animal Husbandry (Alternative B) 2 (Essay) and Store Management 2 (Essay), to be written 9:30am-11:30am – the same time some candidates would be busy with the UTME which would hold in Computer Based Test (CBT) centres nationwide. Animal Husbandry (Alternative B) 1 Objective and Store Management 1 (Objective) was scheduled for 11:30am-12:10pm.
A parent, Mr Suleiman Olagunju from Akure expressed concern that his daughter was to write Animal Husbandry same time as her UTME tomorrow.
He said: “I called the JAMB office and was told they were aware and would do something about it. But up till now nothing has been done. It was JAMB that rescheduled its examination because of the elections. That is the reason for this clash. WAEC timetable for the examination had been fixed.”
The UTME is to last for one week. Meanwhile, WAEC has scheduled practical sessions for about 20 subjects between Monday, April 15, 2019 and Thursday, April 19, 2019 from 9:30am to 4.45pm each day. They include Metalwork, Home Management, Food and Nutrition, Arabic 3 (Oral), French 3 (Oral), Physical Education, Clothing and Textiles, Foods and Nutrition, Home Management, Music, Applied Electricity, Basic Electricity, Health Science, Health Education and Fisheries.
The 2019 WASSCE for School Candidates began on Monday with three subjects, Catering Craft Practice, Marketing and Salesmanship.
