By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
The Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) has announced plans to reopen schools for public examinations to be conducted. The ministry made the announcement on Thursday, following an engagement with education officials and health authorities.
In a statement, the ministry said that schools will be reopened for pupils who are supposed to write the three public examinations: BECE, NPSE and WASSCE, all of which are conducted by the regional examination body, the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC).
Schools have been instructed to reopen on the 1st of July to prepare pupils to write the exams.
“West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) - schools to open for a total period of six weeks, effective 1st July 2020 and include two weeks of preparation for reopening and four weeks for tuition,” the advisory from the ministry states.
The WASSCE, which was indefinitely suspended, is expected to be written from between 4th August 2020 to 4th September 2020. A timetable has not been released, but the MBSSE said dates will be synchronized with other WAEC countries - meaning there is a possibility that the date set for the exams might change.
If exams are completed in September, it could tighten the deadline for WAEC to publish results for students to apply for admission into colleges in time for the start of a new academic year.
Academic year for most tertiary institutions in Sierra Leone starts in October.
Pupils who are in Junior Secondary School III, who are expected to write the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) to transition in to senior secondary school, will also write their exams immediately after the completion of the WASSCE exams in September.
The normal date in the school calendar to write BECE is between June and July. The exam, which normally lasts for almost two weeks, has now been compressed to eight days.
“Schools to open for a minimum of eight weeks of tuition effective 1st July, 2020 with examinations conducted for eight days, starting a week after WASSCE (tentatively 14th September 2020),” the statement adds.
The new announcement puts much more pressure on children in the final year of primary school - class 6 - to be instantly ready for their exams. They are supposed to write the National Primary School Examinations (NPSE) every year in May to transition to Junior Secondary School.
The Covid-19 pandemic prevented them from writing their exams.
Class 6 pupils are expected to start class on the 1st of July and write their exams on the 31st of July.
Schools and colleges in the country have been closed since March 31st after the country announced its first case of the Coronavirus disease.
The ministry has set up a task force known as Emergency Education Taskforce to work through the logistical requirements ahead of the planned reopening.
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