By Jethro Ibileke,
Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has sent five bills to the State House of Assembly for consideration and passage.
The bills include the Disability Rights Bill which seeks to end all forms of discrimination against persons with disabilities.
Others are the Electricity Commission and Agency bill that aims to increase access to electricity to all Edo residents, the Edo Property Development Agency (EDPA) bill, the Criminal Law bill of Edo State, and the Justice Reform bill.
The State Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Andrew Emwanta, disclosed Wednesday, after the weekly State Executive Council (EXCO) meeting presided over by Governor Godwin Obaseki, at the Government House, Benin City.
He said that the bills were discussed extensively with necessary corrections made, noting that clean copies of the bills will be sent to the State House of Assembly for legislative action.
Meanwhile, the State Commissioner for Education, Dr. Joan Osa-Oviawe, has disclosed that external candidates will no longer be allowed to write exams in government-owned and private schools across the state.
She stated this Wednesday in Benin City, after the weekly EXCO meeting.
According to her, “The EXCO mandated the Ministry of Education to put out a public announcement to inform parents and proprietors of private schools as well as public schools’ principals that effective immediately, no external candidates will be allowed to write any exams in the State.
“This affects West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and National Examination Council (NECO), Junior Secondary school as well as primary six exams. The EXCO is only reinforcing this message for the ministry implementation extant policy; this is not a new thing.”
Osa-Oviawe continued: “The government wants to enforce it as part of a determined process to eliminate exam malpractice in our schools. The general public should please take note.
“The expiration for WAEC registration deadline is 25th of February and I am using this opportunity to tell private school owners who are yet to clear for the WAEC exam to do so as a matter of urgency.”
“The Council also mandated that beginning from the next academic year, which is 2022/2023 this year, grace skipping will no longer be allowed. That policy will be enforced by the state Ministry of Education. That means learners will not be allowed to skip primary six to move on to JSS one or write WAEC in any of our public schools,” she added.
