The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) released the results of the May/June West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) 2014, in which approximately 70% failure was recorded. 145,975 out of 1,750,976 candidates’ results are being withheld on the grounds of examination malpractice. These malpractices were reported during both the conduct and the marking of the exams.
The percentages of failure recorded in the past four years range from 75.06% in 2010, 44.66% in 2011, 61.19% in 2012 and 35.74% in 2013, up to a whopping 70% in 2014.
According to the result statistics for WASSCE 2014 summary, Anambra, Abia and Edo states have the highest percentages of 65.92%, 58.52% and 57.82% respectively.
In Anambra State, students who scored five credits and above including Maths and English were 34,094, with 19,109 female students and 14,985 male students. In Abia State, a total of 32,947 students made five credits and above including Maths and English, with 15,347 male students and 17,600 female students. In Bayelsa State, 37,242 students scored five credits and above including Maths and English. 18,479 were male students, 18,763 were female students.
However, eight out of the 36 states in Nigeria recorded a score less than 10%. These states include Adamawa, Jigawa, Sokoto, Zamfara and Kebbi. Others are Gombe, Bauchi and Yobe.
While Adamawa State recorded 8.75% for those who made five credits and above including Maths and English, Jigawa, Sokoto, Zamfara and Kebbi recorded 7.47%, 7.12%, 6.65% and 6.30% respectively. Gombe State recorded 5.68%, Bauchi 5.28% and Yobe, 4.85%.
In Adamawa State, out of the 30,235 candidates who sat for the examinations, 1,510 males and 1,136 females made five credits and above, including Maths and English. Out of the 17,793 candidates who sat for the national examination and made five credits and above including Maths and English in Jigawa, 944 were males and 386 were females. In Sokoto, 25,391 candidates sat for the examinations. 1,193 males and 616 females scored five credits and above, including Maths and English.
In Zamfara, Kebbi, Gombe, Bauchi and Yobe, students who scored five credits and above including Maths and English, male and female, were 1,954, 1,676, 1,107, 1,548 and 743 respectively.
Meanwhile, the scores for Borno, Taraba, Niger, Nasarawa and Oyo states fell within the 15-24% range. Others within this bracket are Plateau, Osun, Cross River and Kogi states.
Scores for Benue, Ogun, Kano, Kwara and the FCT fell within 26-45%. Within this bracket also are Akwa Ibom, Ondo, Ekiti and Ebonyi, Kaduna, Delta, Imo and Lagos states.
Proffering reasons for this mass failure, the deputy vice chancellor of the Tai Solarin University of Education, Professor Joseph Olusanya said that there were many factors responsible for the decline. He said, “Students’ nonchalant attitude towards school is very appalling. We also have a vicious circle of teachers, which means that most teachers at the primary and secondary school levels are half-baked.”
He went on to say, “The level of unseriousness (sic) of students is on the high increase, because the introduction of modern technology has taken their time. Due to low remuneration of teachers, they combine business with teaching, which also affects the output.”
The president of the American University of Nigeria, Professor Margee Ensign, reacting to the mass failure said, “Nigeria as a fast growing country must invest in the training of teachers as already, there is a population explosion, which has led to 11 million out-of-school children. The training of teachers must be done consistently, as 200,000 are needed this year and by next year, an additional 500,000 will be needed to curb the menace of mass failure.”
While many have said that this is not the time to find fault or apportion blame, causes of unacceptable performance in exams can be attributed to bad or inappropriate legislation and leadership, bad parenting, over-burdened curricula and the negative influence ‘texting’ and ‘chatting’ has on students’ command of the English language. Inadequate infrastructure such as classrooms, learning and teaching resources, insufficient teachers of Mathematics, English and other core subjects can also be blamed.
Then there’s the issue of teachers’ apathy. A student, Carmella, speaking for herself and her schoolmates said, “I feel that my teachers are no longer motivated to teach us. They usually come to class angry and are always on their BlackBerrys. They always seem distracted and give half-answers to questions asked in class.”
In an interview with LEADERSHIP Friday, Dr Irene Osemeka, a renowned educationist said, “Of course the poor quality of our students manifests in many ways. The commonest is the poor grammatical expression in the use of tenses. Most students begin their sentences with ‘As in’, without necessarily making a comparison between two subjects or issues.
“There is also poor examination conduct. Cheating during examination has become the norm and regrettably, with connivance of parents and teachers. There is no doubt that the quality of education is failing drastically despite the effort of government and the major stakeholders in the sector.”
Osemeka also noted that the failing standard of education hinders the nation’s graduates from securing good jobs. “Most graduates are unable to scale through the first leg of an interview, even though they have graduated with honours. As a result of this, it has become fashionable for parents to send their children to schools outside the country. The phenomenon also comes with the Age of Information; an age where there is unprecedented access to information via the various electronic devices,” she said.
Osemeka explained that students can make use of ICT in a way that would increase their knowledge and also assist them in their education.
On the puzzle over why then the revolution in the telecommunication sector, for example, has not had a commensurate and positive effect on the quality of the Nigerian student, she averred that the telecom devices were being used more as a source of entertainment than as a tool to complement class work.
Dr Mohammed Khalid Othman, a lecturer in the Department of Agric Engineering, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, speaking on the issue however said, “I feel that the result should be investigated. It is off the shores of normal. I know several good schools whose students didn’t make the five credits and above including Maths and English.”
In a more cheering development, though WAEC has not released all the results for public schools in Borno State because the state government allegedly has not paid its bills for the students of public schools, the results of some candidates from public schools are very encouraging.
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