By Muhammad Nasir Bashir
The Jigawa State Government has approved over N22 million for coaching of students who registered for the 2021 Senior Schools Certificate Examinations (SSCE) in the state.
Dr Abbas Abubakar, the Executive Secretary, Agency for Mass Education, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Dutse on Friday.
Abubakar said the exercise titled: “Extra Coaching for SSCE Final Year Students in Mathematics and English” would be conducted by the agency.
He explained that the exercise was initiated by Gov. Muhammad Badaru of the state in 2019 to enable the students pass their SSCE with good grades.
The executive secretary added that the extra coaching would start two months before the commencement of the SSCE by both West African Examination Council (WAEC) and National Examination Council (NECO).
According to him, the exercise will be conducted in 167 senior secondary schools across the state, where 33,879 final year students are expected to benefit.
Abubakar further stated that 340 facilitators for each of Mathematics and English Language would be engaged to conduct the exercise.
He added that 240 coordinators and 269 inspectors would also participate in the program in order to ensure its successful implementation.
“Gov. Badaru initiated the program with a view to reduce the number of students that failed Mathematics and English Language.
“This is because without these two core subjects, most of the students cannot gain admission into tertiary institutions.
“So, to achieve this, the governor in 2019 approved N13 million, N22 million in 2020 and N22.5 million in 2021.
“And since then, the state has recorded significant improvement, especially with regards to the two core subjects.
“And during our last meeting with teachers in the state, all of them testified that a lot of improvement had been achieved in this regard,” the executive secretary said.
According to him, if sustained, the exercise would along in enhancing the level of performance, especially in the core subjects.
Abubakar therefore urged state governments particularly in the northern part of the country to emulate the gesture in order to address the major setback in the two core subjects. (NAN)
