BY DAYO ADESULU
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has on Tuesday in Lagos explained reasons the Council is seeking extra fund for the successful conduct of 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) slated for August 3 to September 5.
Speaking during a press briefing held at its corporate office, Yaba, Lagos, the WAEC Nigeria Head of National Office, Mr Patrick Areghan, said the Council would need more supervisors and invigilators for the examination kitted with appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), the cost of which was not captured in the budget for the examination.
While appealing to the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, State Governments and corporate organisations for funds, Areghan explained that the gesture would provide Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for manpower that would conduct the examination,
He said due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it would cost the Council more than N50 million to give one face mask and one hand sanitizer to each of its supervisors nationwide.
“Even if we are going to give only one washable/reusable face mask and one bottle of hand sanitizer to every staff and supervisor that will not cost us less than N50 million.
“And if we make it two per staff and supervisor, that will not cost us less than N100 million.
” A committee has already worked on it; these are not just fictitious figures. We have even done negotiations with some companies.
“If we now say if you have hand sanitizers, give us; if you have face masks, give us, is it out of place?” he asked at the briefing at the Council’s headquarters in Yaba.
“These are not normal times. When we were planning for the examination nobody anticipated a situation like this.
“When we talk about supervision; we used to have one supervisor to 299 candidates. Once it is 300 we now have two supervisors.
“But now we are going to have one supervisor to about 150 candidates in order to maintain this social or physical distancing.
“All these have cost implications. For example, we are going to engage 23, 250 supervisors from 10,667. That is a lot of money.
“Now, we have 19,129 schools. If a school has 300 candidates, for example, we are going to have two supervisors. And it also even depends on the number of classrooms they are going to use because we are going to maintain social distancing of two metres apart.
READ ALSO: WAEC: FG Fixes August 4 For Commencement Of Exam
“How many candidates will sit in a hall like this and put one supervisor there? So we are really going to spend more money than originally budgeted.”
Meanwhile.Areghan stated that a total of 1,549,463 SS3 candidates have been registered to take the examination in 19,129 schools nationwide on Mondays-Saturdays from August 3-September 5, 2020.
