The just released results of this year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examination, WAEC, has been generating reactions among some education experts.
The three tiers of government and indeed, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), as well as parents, were blamed for the dismal performance of students in the secondary school examination recently released. For four years running, WAEC had been releasing results of candidates, who obtained five credits in English Language and Mathematics to be below 40 per cent of those who sat for the examination.
The results, according to stakeholders, are a true reflection of the neglect by governments at federal, states and local government levels.
In announcing the May/June 2011 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) result, in Abeokuta, Ogun State, the Head of National Office (HNO) of WAEC, Dr. Iyi Uwachie, said that barely 472, 906 or 31 per cent of the 1, 540, 250 candidates, who wrote the examination, obtained effective credit passes in five subjects.
But reacting to the result, a former Education Minister, Prof Jibril Aminu, said the mass failure in the past four years is as result of government’s apathy to education funding.
Aminu, who is also a former Minister of Petroleum, expressed displeasure over the mass failure, saying that Nigeria is facing the problem of demand outstripping resources.
On his part, the Akwa Ibom State chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Mr. James Inim, blamed the mass failure of candidates on poor staffing of schools by federal and state governments.
Inim told newsmen that he was not surprised at the mass failure because the results were a true reflection of the state of education in the country.
When reminded that Nigerian candidates tend to perform better in other examinations like National Examination Council (NECO) and NABTECH, the NUT boss said; “WAEC has its standards. It is an international body not a national examination body.
He said that the trend of failure would continue nationwide until government realizes the need to pay more attention to teachers, adding that some states had provided incentives to keep, especially science teachers, in the rural areas, so that they would not defect to work in oil industries and earn better pay.
Inim urged every level of government to see education as a priority, right from the grassroots, if Nigerian candidates are expected to improve their performance in SSSCE.
But the state Chairman of Science Teachers Association of Nigeria (STAN), Dr Akaninyene Udom, disagreed with WAEC, saying the result, as released by the body, was condemnable.
Udom said the result was not a true reflection of the performance of Nigerian candidates because some of the candidates also participated in other examinations like NECO, NABTECH and London GCE and had been performing better.Also reacting, a university teacher at the Department of Political Science University of Lagos, Professor Akin Oyebode, lamented the mass failure, saying it is an indictment on the Nigerian education system.
According to him, the situation in Nigerian schools will not abate unless students abandon over-concentration on musical television and government remunerate teachers properly.
He said that teachers are disillusioned and they are not sufficiently motivated, adding, ‘no society can rise beyond its teachers, if the teachers are not well motivated then they cannot teach the pupil well.’
Oyebode, who spoke at the launching of the book, The Denkyira Chest, written by Kanmi Olatoye of the Silverbird Television, pinned the poor performance in the 2011 SSSCE on society giving prominence to MTV and teaching children how to cut corners and get the fat money.
He said that many young Nigerians are thinking of emigrating “and become yahoo, yahoo boys,” cut corners and get the fat bucks, adding that Nigerian students must be encourage to get far away from Channel O and MTV.
He called on President Goodluck Jonathan to get down to business in his quest to bring the books back, adding that this should not be just wishful thinking, but that government must motivate the teachers and refurbish the education system while reordering the types of book that students read.
Secretary, NUT Plateau State, Mr. Rueben Daniel also called on government to stop paying lip service to education by not paying teachers as at when due and forcing them to embark on strike actions; saying if teachers are well rated and paid regularly, they would no longer embark on trade disputes and children would not be kept at home longer than necessary.
He stressed the need to provide adequate infrastructure and teaching equipment for teachers to work with in schools and the need to flush out unqualified teachers and engaged well-trained to impact prerequisite knowledge in the students.
Permanent Secretary in the State Ministry of Education, Mrs. Martina Dakur, stressed the need to dissect the problem and find out where the problems lies for students to be recording mass failure in examination.
She said some students already have phobia for subjects like Mathematics even before students sit for the examination and said there is need for orientation right from the home for students to improve their performance.
A mother and leader of the Market Women Associations for the 17 local government areas of Plateau State, Mrs. Tabitha Dayubu, traced the poor result to constant strike by teachers and called for improved relationship between government and labour so that children are not kept at home longer than necessary.
Source: Radio Nigeria
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