THE Lagos State Government, through the Ministry of Education, Office of Education Quality Assurance, has said there will be no automatic promotion for students when they resume.
The government said this during a webinar with stakeholders on Tuesday.
Recall that schools in Nigeria were shut down on March, 20, 2020, owing to the outbreak of Coronavirus in the country.
The meeting had in attendance the Commissioner for Education and Director-General, Office of Education Quality Assurance, Adefisayo Folashade, and other relevant stakeholders.
One of the speakers, Abiola Seriki Ayeni, noted that promoting a child without evaluation or examination was lowering the standard of education, adding that this must not be practised in Lagos State.
“So to those parents clamouring for automatic promotion, there is no automatic promotion. Evaluation must be done before promotion to the next level,” she said.
Giving fresh steps of registration to school owners before operating in the state, the Office of Education Quality Assurance said school reopening would be with the maximum of 60 per cent in attendance.
This means that there should be a strategy attendance of two days on and two days off.
“Safety precautionary measures must be observed and any school that encounters COVID-19 cases will be shut down,” she added.
The state disclosed that it had completed the third term through radio and television programmes that were conducted from March to July.
Therefore the HOD of OEQA stressed that the first to third week of resumption would be used for public schools’ evaluation test and promotion for the children.
“This shows that there will be no automatic promotion as it is speculated by some people,” the HOD said.
The Government said private schools that had online facilities should continue to make up for the staggered date and stream the lessons online to those that were not in school.
“If you don’t have online facilities, you have options of morning and afternoon sessions, observing 60 per cent capacity,” it added.
While private schools were advised to shorten school hours depending on arrangements between school owners and parents, public school hours would be decided by the education ministry, with the academic calendar, the authorities said.
