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WAEC successfully conducts exam in Chibok after six years
By Adekunle Badmus
The West African Examination Council (WAEC) has successfully conducted the 2020 Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in senior secondary schools in Chibok in Borno State six years after closure due to insurgency.
Brig.-Gen. Abdul-Khalifa Ibrahim, Acting General Officer Commanding (GOC), 7 Division, Nigerian Army, disclosed this while playing host to members of Education in Emergency Working Group Nigeria (EiEWGN), on Thursday in Maidugur.
Chibok schools were closed after over 200 students were abducted by the Boko Haram terrorists from the Government Girls Secondary School in 2014.
While the Federal Government has secured the release of some of the abducted girls, others are still in the terrorist captivity till date.
Ibrahim, who is also the Commander Sector 1, Operation Lafiya Dole, was represented by the Chief of Staff of the division, Brig.-Gen. Ifeanyi Otu.
He said the insurgency conflict had its foundation on the detest for Western Education by the Boko Haram sect, adding that it had an unimaginable impact on education in the North East.
According to him, we want to thank God that the conflict in the entire North East has been brought under control.
“We are all witnesses to what happened in the recent past like the abduction of the Chibok girls, the slaughtering of students at Buni Yadi and abduction of students at Dapchi.
“These are all that happened and we have turned around that narrative.
“It will be gladdening to note that for the first time in the past six years, WAEC successfully held WASSCE in Chibok with the military providing security,’’ he said.
Ibrahim said that the Nigerian army had continued to support the resuscitation of education in the northeast while fighting to secure the region from insurgents.
According to him, after the capture of Gwoza, the Nigerian Army had to integrate the teachers taking refuge into teaching the children there and have been paying them since then.
He added that the division recently donated books to some schools in IDPs camps in Borno as well as renovating some schools as part of an effort to resuscitate education in the state.
Ibrahim disclosed that about 70 per cent of the schools that were being occupied by soldiers due to the conflict had been relinquished, adding that efforts were being made to relinquish the remaining 30 per cent.
“Let me equally say that the Chief of Army Staff has been making deliberate effort through the education corps to post in teachers to all schools within the northeast states.
“We are really doing enough to ensure that education is resuscitated and as we all know, education is one thing that liberates the individual and liberates the minds.
“In the first place, this conflict would not have thrived if not that there was high illiteracy rate in this zone,’’ he said.
The GOC commended the group for their effort towards ensuring that schools in the North East were resuscitated, assuring of the Nigerian army’s commitment to supporting actualising of the initiative.
(NAN)
