By Gabriel Dike and Seye Ojo, Ibadan
17-year-old Victory Yinka-Banjo, a former student of Princeton College, Aguda, Lagos, has emerged as the best overall candidate in the May/June West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
Yinka-Banjo emerged as the overall best candidate in the school exam with 9 A1s in Civic Education, English Language, General Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Computer Studies and Catering Craft Practice.
Yinka-Banjo is currently studying Computational Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (MIT), USA.
In the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), she scored 335. Yinka-Banjo also scored 1540 out of 1600 in the 2020 SAT.
Another 17-year-old, an ex-student of Emerald Laurel Comprehensive College, Ibadan, Oyo State, Dorcas Adebowale, emerged as the second best candidate with 9 A1s.
Adebowale, who has been offered admission to study Medicine and Surgery at the University of Ibadan, scored 322 in the 2020 UTME.
The 3rd position went to Confidence Nwaozuzu, formerly of Total Education Development Academy, Eke-Owerri, Abia State. She also obtained 9 A1s in the May/June2020 WASSCE.
The representative of the Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, Chairman of the Nigeria National Committee, Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology and WAEC Head of National Office (HNO) presented the awards to the three best candidates in the May/June 2020 WASSCE.
Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, who was represented by his Deputy Chief of Staff, Abdul-Mojeed Mogbonjubola, stated that the invitation extended to the Nigeria National Committee of WAEC ‘to hold this meeting in Oyo State is a confirmation of my administration’s resolve to continue to revive the education sector in this great state.
‘This is because I am determined to make education the bedrock of our development programme. In achieving this, my administration introduced and implemented the free education programme, which was driven by the initiative to improve access and expand opportunities assuring quality and relevant education provision, among others in Oyo State. So far, about 43,000 out-of-school children in the state have been reinstated back to school.’
Governor Makinde commended WAEC on its efforts ‘to stem the tide of examination malpractice, which has been threatening the entire foundation of our education sector. Also, I must commend the initiative of the management of WAEC for successfully deploying the WAEC Request Management System and Chabot to ease the stress that candidates go through to access WAEC services, which in turn reduces the influx of people to the council’s offices across the federation.
‘I urge this committee and the management of the Nigeria National Office of the council, not to rest on their oars in evolving more strategies and initiatives that would drastically cut down the incidence of examination malpractice.’
The Oyo governor noted further that education would forever remain the only veritable tool of socio-economic development and the best legacy to bequeath to the children and youth of the state, saying: ‘This has further geared our administration toward striving hard to put in place proper and sustainable foundation for the education sector, providing qualitative and affordable education to the Oyo State child, while accommodating the challenges faces by children with special needs in our state.