The administration of Governor Udom Emmanuel will continue to display unwavering passion and commitment towards investing in the education sector of the State to ensure a better future for every Akwa Ibom child.

The Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Idongesit Etiebet made this declaration at the open briefing of Principals, supervisors and other examination functionaries for the 2022 WASSCE examination held at Community Secondary Commercial School, Aka Offot on Friday.

The commissioner called on key players and stakeholders in the education sector to collectively employ strategies and modalities towards delivering an examination devoid of malpractices and other negative vices in line with Governor Emmanuel’s zero tolerance to such tendencies, in the upcoming West African Senior School Certificate Examination for Schools Candidates (WASSCE-SC) in the State.

Mrs. Etiebet, on behalf of all education sector stakeholders, poured encomiums on Governor Udom Emmanuel for consistent payment of tuition fees, subventions, WASSCE and other basic education related requirements, and stated that the Akwa Ibom State Government will be spending eight hundred and thirty million (N 830,000,000) to ensure that children in public secondary schools write the WASSCE examination this year.

Recounting that education is still free and compulsory at the basic level and highly subsidised at the tertiary level, the education boss reiterated the state of emergency declared in the education sector and the target given by Governor Udom Emmanuel last year for 80 percent of the students writing WASSCE to score a minimum of five credits in subjects including English Language and Mathematics and further appealed that the target percentage which has been increased to 90 percent this year be achieved.

She said " In the last three years, the analysis conducted by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) shows that students in Akwa Ibom State have improved consistently and consecutively in their WASSCE results.

“This has exceeded the target Governor Udom Emmanuel gave for 80 percent of students writing WASSCE in the state to score a minimum of five credits in subjects including English Language and Mathematics.”

While noting the increment of WASSCE fees from 13,900 to 18,000 this year, she maintained that Principals and supervisors are critical stakeholders in ensuring that the students recieve qualitative education and graduate by their own efforts to make sure that they defend the certificate they are being issued.

The Education Commissioner noted remarkably the synergy that exists between the present administration in the state and the West African Examination Council (WAEC) over the years and commended WAEC, the WAEC Deputy Registrar/ and Zonal Coordinator, Engineer A. Adebolu and all the WAEC staff working in Akwa Ibom State who have done all it takes to make sure Akwa Ibom children come out with excellent results, adding that the supervision that goes on in collaboratively by the Ministry of Education, the school boards and the team from WAEC is highly commendable.

She thanked the teachers, Principals and supervisors in both public and private schools for the good job of teaching, grooming and tutoring the students especially those in exit classes to be equipped for the examination and enjoined them to do last minutes revisions with with their students by suggesting ways that can assist them in answering the questions correctly through acronyms and abbreviations to boost their retentiveness.

Speaking earlier the Deputy Registrar /Zonal Coordinator WAEC Zonal office represented by a Senior Internal Auditor of WAEC, Mrs. Faith Ihediwah stated the vision of WAEC "to be a world class examining body, adding value to the educational goals of its stakeholders" and their mission to "remain Africa's foremost examining body providing qualitative and reliable educational assessment, encouraging acedemic and moral excellence and promoting sustainable human resources development and international cooperation".

In assessing the performance of the council in the years gone, the council gave glory to God and all the stakeholders for the improvement in the activities of WAEC.

Mrs. Ihediwah said these improvements include among others, e-Certman and collection of certificates by candidates at choice locations, prompt release of results and maintained that these success stories would not have been possible without the maximum cooperation received from the education stakeholders.

"How would results be released and certificates collected if examinations were not conducted. It has not gone unnoticed your innumerable contributions bkrg as Principals and supervisors. Your level of commitment is second to none".

She stated that there has been a noticeable decline by the statistics of reported examination mal practice cases and hoped that all hands will continue to be on deck to ensure that this trend of decline continues and the menace completely subdued. She also noted that there was an increase in the pass rate of the candidates and attributes it to coaching, coaxing and encouraging of teachers to ensure that the students keep soaring.

The WEAC official expressed gratitude to the Governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel and the Education Commissioner, Mrs. Idongesit Etiebet particularly for payment of examination fees for students in public schools, release of teachers for supervision and invigilation of examination, release of teachers for coordination and marking of scripts, permission to use schools for private candidates examination, encouraging schools to respond to request for early submission of entries and early release of results.

She beseeched all education stakeholders involved in the WASSCE to take responsibility to see that activities that should happen before, during and after examination go on as planned and to ensure that the conduct of WASSCE for school candidates in 2022 is a success.

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