{"id":31068,"date":"2014-09-09T20:30:11","date_gmt":"2014-09-09T19:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=31068"},"modified":"2014-09-09T20:30:11","modified_gmt":"2014-09-09T19:30:11","slug":"mass-failure-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/mass-failure-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Mass Failure And Our Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Egbejumi-David<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

In the run-up to the last Ekiti gubernatorial contest of June this year, I wrote a piece about Fayose, a little reminder of some of the scandals that led to his being kicked out of office first time around.\u00a0\u00a0To my shock, a lot of young responders on Facebook never got it.\u00a0\u00a0They thought I was saying that because Fayose was once a cab driver in London, that ought to disqualify him from seeking office as Governor.\u00a0\u00a0How they arrived at that bizarre conclusion was a feat only known to them.\u00a0\u00a0But for me, that episode was a sad reminder that education has hit the buffers in Nigeria.<\/p>\n

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And when the West African Examination Council (WAEC) results came out a few weeks ago, no further proof was required.\u00a0\u00a0It was a sight for sore eyes.\u00a0\u00a0It was failure on a most disheartening scale.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s been a gradual slide.\u00a0\u00a0We fell off the cliff, I think in 2011.\u00a0\u00a0That year, only 30.91% of all candidates who sat the WAEC exams passed (i.e., got at least 5 credits).\u00a0\u00a0Later that same year, in Edo State, all the secondary school students who sat the National Examinations Council (NECO) failed.\u00a0\u00a0All of them!\u00a0\u00a0In 2012, the pass rate for WAEC was 38.81.\u00a0\u00a0In 2013, that rate dropped again, to 36.57%.\u00a0\u00a02014 records a 31.28% pass rate with 8.61% of candidates alleged to have engaged in exam malpractices.<\/p>\n

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Hhmm\u2026this is quite sobering and the whole thing reads like a bad joke.\u00a0\u00a0Please think about what this means in raw numbers.\u00a0\u00a0In 2014, of the 1,692,435 youngsters who sat the exams, 1,163,010 of them failed.\u00a0\u00a0That is nearly 1.2 million students!<\/p>\n

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In this country, we\u2019ve always had ministers and commissioners of education.\u00a0\u00a0These people collect handsome salaries, live in fantastic mansions and have 24-hour police protection.\u00a0\u00a0And since 2007, we\u2019ve had educators as presidents.\u00a0\u00a0What has been their collective impact on the standard of education here?<\/p>\n

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In contrast, our kids are excelling in schools abroad \u2013 particularly in the UK and the US.\u00a0\u00a0They routinely come top of the class from primary right through to tertiary level.\u00a0\u00a0In fact there is a joke in the UK that if you don\u2019t see a Nigerian and a Chinese in any particular university, do not let your kid go there.\u00a0\u00a0So what has happened to education in Nigeria?<\/p>\n

\n

Well, the most obvious thing that stands out is that there is something wrong in the way education is delivered here.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m not certain that funding is the main issue; after all, a sizable chunk of those students would have gone to private schools.\u00a0\u00a0And some of the teachers are hopelessly inadequate.<\/p>\n

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Another reason for these mass failures is this recent phenomenon called \u2018Expo.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0A few days to the exams, some websites would claim that they have the genuine WAEC questions.\u00a0\u00a0A lot of candidates rush there.\u00a0\u00a0They get access to the questions, for a fee, of course.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0At this point, they cannot go to their teachers for help as they would have to explain from where they got the questions.\u00a0\u00a0So they approach undergraduates and other people who themselves are products of previous mass failures.\u00a0\u00a0Half baked undergrads provide half baked and oftentimes, outright wrong answers (for a fee of course) which students share among themselves in their group.\u00a0\u00a0Furthermore, this being Nigeria, 419 practitioners have caught-on and they too set up their own \u2018genuine\u2019 WAEC questions websites.\u00a0\u00a0The result? Mass failure.<\/p>\n

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Moreover, there are \u2018specialised\u2019 exam centres where some parents and invigilators join forces to cheat on behalf on their wards.\u00a0\u00a0A lot of students have come to put their trust in such centres and in prayers rather than study well.\u00a0\u00a0Wrong answers given in such centres permeates the whole group.<\/p>\n

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The frightening thing for me is that it would not be possible for all 1.2 million students that failed this year\u2019s WAEC to sit the exams again.\u00a0\u00a0There is simply no scope for that.\u00a0\u00a0So Universities and Polytechnics would have to lower their minimum admission requirements in order to get students because, quite frankly, those institutions need their money to stay in business.<\/p>\n

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This means that, by hook and by crook, and via our other miracle-working ways, people who cannot pass secondary school exams will in a few years become \u2018graduates\u2019 and flood the job market.\u00a0\u00a0Goodness!\u00a0\u00a0The implication and the multiplier effect on the nation\u2019s economy (and socio-cultural bearing) are dire.<\/p>\n

\n

Some of these young people will become journalists and editors, a few will find their way into the banks, some will become teachers, some might become First Ladies, while the rest will end up in Local Government administration.\u00a0\u00a0And if this has been the pattern for the past twenty year or so, it is no wonder we are where we are today.<\/p>\n

\n

To redress this situation, I think we really have to look again at the curriculum with a view to revamping it.\u00a0\u00a0We need to redesign our teacher training programmes (because what obtains at the moment is clearly failing young people), and perhaps introduce performance-related pay for teachers.\u00a0\u00a0We also need to improve infrastructure and reduce class sizes.\u00a0\u00a0And governments, from the federal to local council levels, have got to enforce minimum standards in school, not just colluding with school authorities and collecting bribe.<\/p>\n

\n

But the government cannot do this alone, and education is too important to be left entirely in the hands of government anyway.\u00a0\u00a0Parents must play a more active role.\u00a0\u00a0It is not enough to pay the school fees – no matter how expensive.\u00a0\u00a0Some young people spend entirely too much time on DSTV watching football and Mexican soaps.\u00a0\u00a0Parents have got to be more hands on.\u00a0Conversely, some parents have to resist the urge to overburden school kids with disproportionate economic undertakings.<\/p>\n

\n

I know it is a rat-race out there and we have to put food on the table and live comfortable enough lives, but we\u2019ve got to take care of the future too.\u00a0\u00a0A look at the WAEC result table shows quite a few states in the North\/Northeast at the root of the table.\u00a0\u00a0These are the same states now in the worst grip of Boko Haram.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s the link.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s the future unless we begin to change things now.<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

demdem@hotmail.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Twitter: demdemdem1<\/p>\n

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