KOGI Government has revived the conduct of the First School Leaving Certificate Examination (FSLCE) in the state 12 years after it was stopped.

Pastor Godwin Abraham, State Custodian, Kogi Ministry of Education, Lokoja Centre, told journalists in Lokoja on Wednesday that the FSLCE was stopped  in 2006, saying it had really affected the educational  system.

He commended the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology and the State Government for reviving the examination, saying “there are lots of expectations from our children as everyone of them is in the high spirit to write the exam.”

“We have over 263 primary schools that are writing this exam under Lokoja Local Government Areas alone, and over 47, 000 pupils are writing the exam across the 21 LGAs across the state.

The exam started on Tuesday with English Language and was  completed Wednesday with Mathematics and General Paper.

Abraham said all the exam centres were supplied with adequate  question papers.

“We thank God for how he has helped us so far.  The experiences for this exam have been very sweet and smooth because there are many innovations,” Abraham said.

Meanwhile, the monitoring team of the ministry visited some schools in Lokoja, Ajaokuta, Ofu and Dekina Local Government Areas of the state, to monitor the conduct of the exam.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the examination  was hitch-free in all the schools visited, and many of the Head Teachers, expressed gratitude to the State Government.

Mrs Joy Yusuf, the Head Teacher of LGEA Primary School, Agbeji Ojimele in Dekina LGA, told NAN that the teachers, parents and the pupils themselves were excited over the revival of the exam, saying “We are grateful to the commissioner.”

Another Head Teacher, Mrs Serah Sani, LGEA Primary School, Ogbagbo, Ofu LGA, told NAN that the State Government has done well for re-introducing the exam and for ensuring hitch-free conduct.

However, Mrs Mary Odawu, the Head Teacher of LGEA Primary School, Olofu in Anyigba, said that the examination did not hold in her school, saying the pupils failed to turn up for the exam,  even after persuasions.

Mr Moses Abara, the Special Adviser to Kogi governor on Education, Science and Technology, who also monitored the conduct of the exam, told NAN in Anyigba that “so far so good, the conduct of the exam in all schools I visited was in order.”

“However, we discovered that some students were not there to write the exam. This was not the fault of the teachers,  because they said those pupils had gone to the farms.

“In some schools where the teachers were not doing well,  we tried to correct them and put them in order,” Abara said. (NAN)

– July 26, 2018 @ 9:35 GMT |

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