The Total Education Development Academy (TEDA), Eke-Owerri, Abia, on Thursday received the Augustus Bandele Oyediran Trophy for producing the overall best result in the 2020 West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for school candidates in Nigeria.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the award was presented during the annual meeting of the Nigeria National Committee (NNC) of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), held in Ibadan.
A student of TEDA, Miss Confidence Nwaozuzu, also received distinction/merit award for outstanding performance in the examination while some schools received the Omo N’Oba Erediauwa Coronation Trophies.
The NNC Chairman, Hajia Binta Abdulkadir, said at the event that three best schools in the WASSCE for school candidates, 2020, were from Oyo State.
She said that the schools would be given the WAEC Endowment Fund Book Prize worth $5,000, while three best candidates would be honoured with National Distinction/Merit Award with cash prizes, cheques and certificates.
“It will interest you to know that the three winners of the National Distinction/Merit Award this year are all females.
“The WAEC/Vatebra Merit Award will also be presented to deserving schools and candidates,” she said.
She remarked that during the 2021 WASSCE, WAEC strengthened its determination to combat examination malpractice by deploying the Variable Data Printing (VDP) technology to track malpractice perpetrators
Gov. Seyi Makinde of Oyo State said at the occasion that the state government implemented free education policy in its determination to develop the education sector.
Makinde was represented by his Deputy Chief of Staff, Mr Abdul Olawale.
“We are doubling our efforts to support teaching and learning, the wellbeing of the people is our uttermost priority,” he said.
He commended WAEC for efforts to curb examination malpractice, and hailed the rewarded schools and students for outstanding performances.
The Founder of TEDA, Dr Godson Dinneya, said that WAEC was rewarding consistent hard work in teaching/learning with appropriate tools in an enabled environment.
He said that TEDA’s policy of recruiting highly-qualified subject-relevant and motivated instructors and its deployment of modern scientific facilities as well as its willing-to-learn studentship, were some of the reasons for the school’s high performance.
“In particular, the excellent delivery of the TEDA online classes that ran throughout the COVID-induced schools’ closure, is highly commendable.
“There is no shortcut to excellence, schools must be ready to invest in quality infrastructure and in teachers with relevant experiences.
“Parents must see themselves as partners with the school in training their wards, students must be made to develop a culture of consistent hard work,” he added.
He said that security for schools/students, continuous update of school curricula to align with global and domestic needs, and creation of platforms for healthy competition among schools and students, were paramount to improving the education sector.
Earlier, the WAEC Head of National Office, Mr Patrick Areghan, noted that the meeting was held annually.
Areghan said that the NNC was the highest policy organ of WAEC in Nigeria, adding that it ensured that policies of the council were formulated in the interest of all. (NAN)