The Edo State Government said over 90,000 pupils from private and public schools sat for the 2022 Primary Six Examination held across the state at the weekend.

The Edo State Commissioner for Education, Dr. Joan Osa Oviawe, spoke to journalists at Olua Primary School after monitoring the exams in five Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Edo South Senatorial District of Edo State.

The commissioner, who expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the examination, said about 445 examination centres were used for the exercise across the 18 local councils of Edo State

She said, "We have monitored the various centres across Edo South Senatorial District and the exams started on time. This became necessary to ensure they finished the exercise on time to make sure that the pupils go home on time.

"For this year's primary six exams, we have about 445 exam centres across the 18 local government areas of Edo State and over 90,000 pupils in public and private schools, who are writing the exams.

"I appreciate and acknowledge the efforts of the exam department in the past three weeks to ensure the success of this exam.

"We have gone around five local government areas of Edo State while the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Chief Inspector of Education are monitoring Edo Central and Edo North respectively, ensuring that the whole process is successful."

The Commissioner further commended the parents for obeying the examination rules by staying outside the examination centres.

Oviawe noted, "Examination is all about improvement. We looked at the examination last year and improved on our lapses this year. The take-away for me is that we shouldn't even be doing this examination now, because, by September, which is the beginning of the school year, we already know how many pupils we have in primary six. So, why are we waiting till the last minute?

 "We would be aiming to get this done by April and by the third term, we should be focusing on getting our pupils ready for JSS 1 and the third term will be a transition term for us.”

She hinted that the Ministry plans to improve on the conduct of the examination next year, adding: "We will be introducing technology to help us know the cognitive ability of every child and help us produce a very robust analysis result to their parents. Our goal is that by August 2022, primary six certificates will be out.”

Schools monitored include Itohan Girls Grammar School and Uwa Primary School both in Oredo LGA; Eresoyen Primary School at Oluku in Ovia North East; Uwa Model Demonstration School, Uhunmwode LGA, and Olua Primary School. Egor LGA of Edo State.