Senate Summons Education Minister, WAEC Head Over New SSCE Guidelines

The Senate, on Tuesday, summoned the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, and the Head of the National Office of West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Dr Amos Dangut, over the new guidelines set by the regional exam body for candidates writing the 2025/2026 Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE).

The guidelines, according to a motion moved by Senator Sunday Karimi (APC, Kogi West), altered the subject requirements for the SS3 students preparing for the 2025/2026 May/June examinations.

Senator Karimi expressed concern that the sudden changes in the subjects could lead to mass failures next year as the candidates would be required to sit for papers they were not adequately groomed for.

The motion partly read, “The guidelines require that all SS3 students nationwide are required to adopt the new curriculum immediately, despite the fact that the guidelines was initially scheduled to operate in the next two years, and applicable to pupils who are currently in SS (Senior Secondary Education)1 and who are scheduled to write WAEC SSCE in 2027/2028.

“Further aware that by virtue of the new guidelines, subjects such as Computer Studies, Civil Education and ‘All Previous Trade Subjects’, have been removed from the WAEC (West African Examination Council’s) Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination, as the courses no longer offered nor to be examined in the Exams slated for May/June 2026, despite years of preparation by Senior Secondary School Pupils in Nigeria.

“Worried that with the removal of these three Subjects-(Computer Studies, Civic Education and All Previous Trade Subjects) all pupils across all specialisations and combinations (be it sciences, humanities and business courses) are left with maximum of just six(6) courses each, despite the Examination Council’s requirement of a minimum offering of eight (8) and maximum offering of (9) subjects/courses for WAEC Senior Secondary Certificate Registration and Examination.

“This implies that each pupil will have between two (2) to three (3) courses to be examined upon in May/June next year, despite never offering the courses before and with abysmal preparation.

“Cognisant that although the introduction of New Trade Subjects such as Beauty and Cosmetology, Fashion Design and Garment Making, Livestock Farming, Computer Hardware and GSM Repairs, Solar Photovoltaic Installation and maintenance and Horticulture and Crop Production are commendable, insisting that students without prior education on these subjects should be examined thereon in May/June 2026 will have negative implications on the students exams and quality of examination results and standards.”

Senators, while contributing to the debate, noted that though the changes were comammdabe, the timing would put undue pressure on the candidates.

They called for the exclusion of the 2025/2026 SSCE candidates from the new guidelines and allow those registering for the 2027/2028 examainations to prepare adequately for the new subjects.

Senator Adams Oshiomhole (APC, Edo North) advised against forcing the new guidelines on the current SS3 students.

“We wake up and think of an idea and begin to implement it. For a new subject to start, the citizens should be well-informed to prepare for it, So, do we have enough teachers to teach? Have we prepared the laboratories? That evidence doesn’t exist,” he said.

“We don’t have to plan in a manner that will cause us embarrassment.”

Senator Idiat Adebule (APC, Lagos West) said though she supported the motion, she preferred that the matter he thoroughly investigated.

According to her, the National Council of Education, which comprises commissioners of education from the 36 states, is usually involved in taking such decisions to make changes to the guidelines.

On his part, the chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriations, Senator Adeola Olamilekan, (APC, Ogun West) argued that the proper thing to do was to tutor students adequately before they would sit for an examination in order to guard against Nass failure.

“Students need to have prior knowledge of the new subjects before they can be examined on them by WAEC. So, the minister of education has some questions to answer,” he added.

President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, before rounding off the debate, queried the removal of computer studies and civil education from the subject list.

“Everything is going digital. So, why are we removing computer studies and civic education? The children need to know their national anthem and their civic obligations to their nation.

“In any case, we should do a proper investigation to be sure that this information is even correct,” Akpabio said.

The matter was, thereafter, referred to the Senate Committee on Basic and Secondary Education to report back to the plenary in two weeks.