WAEC to Continue Exams Despite NLC & TUC Strike

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has confirmed that the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) will proceed as scheduled despite the nationwide strike declared by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC). The strike, scheduled to begin on Monday, June 3, 2024, aims to address the government’s inability to reach a truce on a new minimum wage.

Mrs. T.A.Y. Lawson, the branch controller for Ekiti State, conveyed this information in a letter addressed to school principals and heads in the state. The letter, titled “Notice of Commencement of Indefinite Strike by NLC and TUC,” with reference number EK/BC/SC/EXAM/07/Vol.1/89, was issued late Friday.

Despite the strike, WAEC has assured the public that the examination body shares the burden of the unions. However, it is important that students are not at the receiving end by missing the ongoing examination in Nigeria and some West African states. The Nigeria timetable for the examination began on Tuesday, April 30, and is scheduled to end on Thursday, June 20, 2024.

WAEC has urged principals, supervisors, parents, and the general public to make adequate arrangements for their candidates to sit the exam, emphasizing that the WASSCE is going on across the member countries of WAEC and that the Nigerian child should not be put at a disadvantage of missing the exam.

This decision comes amid the backdrop of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress’s declaration of an indefinite strike action from Monday, June 3, 2024, following the federal government’s inability to meet its demand on the new minimum wage. The organized labor has accused the government of lacking commitment in negotiations and has demanded a reversal of the recent hike in electricity tariffs.

The Federal Government has pleaded with organized labor to reconsider its decision, noting that the industrial action is not the solution to the ongoing negotiation for a new minimum wage for workers.