Exceptionally intelligent children below 18 years may be allowed to write the West African School Certificate Examinations, WASCE and the National Examinations Council, NECO examinations, the federal government has said.
Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, disclosed this, Thursday during a tour of the Federal Government Academy, Suleja.
“It may not and we are going to develop criteria to guide what we will call Gifted children”, he said while answering questions on the government’s plans for gifted children given the new education policy of the government that sets age limits for candidates writing WASCE and NECO examinations.
Addressing reporters after the tour of the school, also known as the National School for the Gifted, alongside Minister of State for Education, Dr. Tanko Sununu, Prof. Mamman
announced an extension of the resumption date for students of Federal Government Academy, Suleja by two weeks.
He explained that the decision was due to ongoing renovations in the school.
According to him, students would not be allowed to resume an environment that was unconducive for learning.
Instead of resuming with other Federal government colleges on Sunday, the 8th of September, students may now resume on the 18th barring any unforeseen circumstances.
He said: “We cannot have this young children here when there is work ongoing. The plumbing facility, showers, water and everything are a bit unstructured because of the ongoing work so the facility needs to be ready.
“We have granted 10 days which is the embodiment of two weeks. They will make up somehow.”
Worried over the current state of the school, the minister pledges the commitment of the government to provide the needed support to help upgrade the school to what it should be.
“This is the only school of its kind in the country where we are supposed to assemble students who demonstrate special attitude and capacity to come here for special training.
“For us we need to showcase the school and for us to do that, we need to see that the necessary supportive infrastructure is there, that the academic environment is suitable for that purpose.
“Maintenance has been a problem. What we have seen doesn’t answer our expectations of the type of school that it should be. They have achieved some mileage but that is not the destination we are looking at.
“The principal has done her bit within the limited resources available to her and it’s probably one of the few places where students are supposed to be here free and not pay anything, unlike some other places where they pay small charges here and there.
Vanguard
