WAEC May/June 2014 Result: Nigeria Sitting On A Time Bomb

9 years ago

WAEC May/June 2014 Result: Nigeria Sitting On A Time Bomb

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.
WAEC-RESULT
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.
At the Future Prowess Islamic Foundation
School, one of the private schools visited by
LEADERSHIP Friday, the management
celebrated the performance of the graduating
students, which, according to them is
impressive, considering the ongoing Boko
Haram insurgency.

According to the head teacher, Malam
Suleiman, a female student of the school,
Aisha Tijjani Mustapha, made three
distinctions and four credits, while Aisha
Usman Isa, another female student, made a
distinction and six credits, including
Mathematics and English. Yet another female
student, Amina Lawan Musa, scored five
credits.

“We are really proud of our students,
especially the female ones. Our most
outstanding student is Aisha Tijjani, who
scored C-6 in Commerce, C-6 in Financial
Accounting, C-5 in Store Management, B3 in
Economics, B-3 in Islamic Studies, C-5 in Civic
Education, C-6 in Mathematics and B3 in
English Language. Aisha Usman Isa got C6 in
commerce, C6 in Store Management, C6 in
Economics, C6 in Islamic Studies, C6 in Civic
Education and B-3 in Mathematics. Amina
Lawan Musa, Financial Accounting – C6, Store
Management – B2, Economics – C6, Islamic
Studies – C6, Maths – B3,” he said.

Source: leadership.ng/news/382400/nigeria-sitting-time-
bomb