FCT Students Defy Ongoing Strike Action as WAEC Exams Holds

Senior secondary school students in the Federal Capital Territory yesterday commenced their final examination across the territory amidst the ongoing strike declared by primary and secondary school teachers in the territory.

Journalists visited some secondary schools across the FCT on Tuesday morning to monitor the situation, and observed that the SS3 students had commenced their WAEC examination with practical subjects.

At the Government Secondary School (GSS) Kwali, invigilators were seen monitoring students who were writing their practical exams.

A teacher, Mrs Rosemary Akindele, said the ongoing teachers’ strike did not affect the commencement of the WAEC examinations.

“The ongoing teachers’ strike has nothing to do with the students writing WAEC because this is a West African examination which has nothing to with the ongoing strike,” she said.

Also, at the Government Secondary School (GSS) Hajj Camp, Gwagwalada, their WAEC exam was in progress, while supervisors were seen invigilating the students.

An invigilator who preferred anonymity told our reporter that the students commenced their WAEC examination with practical test on Food and Nutrition.

Students were also seen participating in the examination at the Government Girls Secondary School Dutse and the Government Secondary School Kubwa 2, both located in Bwari Area Council.

However, there were no students at the Government Secondary School in Phase 3, Kubwa, during the visit.

An official of the school told our reporter that this was due to the fact that students in the school were not offering Food and Nutrition (practical) which was written yesterday.

He, however, noted that the school would fully participate in the main examination set to kick-start from April 27.

He said the examination, which is conducted by a sub-continental body WAEC, should not in any way be disrupted by a strike exercise that has to do with the FCT alone.

The official also disclosed that all revisions on subjects that have to do with the examination, were fully addressed by the teachers before the ongoing strike action.

At the GGSS Dutse, which is an only-female boarding school, students were still returning back to the school, after participating in the just concluded JAMB examination.

Meanwhile, academic activities at both primary and secondary schools across the FCT have remained paralysed following the ongoing strike embarked by teachers on Monday.

Our reporter who went round some of the schools on Tuesday, observed that the branch union teachers still barricaded the entrance gates of both primary and secondary schools in the FCT.

It was also observed that there were no pupils in the school just as the classrooms remained under lock and key, except for security guards and the union teachers who manned the gates.

One of the teachers, Gabriel Moses, who spoke to our reporter, said the strike action will continue until the FCT administration addresses their demands.

“We are abiding by the directive of the FCT NUT hence, ‘no retreat no surrender’ until the minister addresses our demands, which is why we are at the school gate this morning again,” he said.

The chairman of the FCT wing of the NUT, Comrade Mohammed Abdullahi Shafas, told our reporter through the telephone that he was in a meeting, saying he will revert later.

Some school principals who spoke to press said the ongoing strike would not affect students writing the WAEC examination.