THREE weeks after WAEC released its results, stakeholders in the education sector are still trading blames on who is actually responsible for students’ mass failure in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination, WASSCE, where 31 per cent failure in Mathematics and English Language was recorded.
While parents are blaming WAEC for the decline in students’ performance, WAEC is blaming unseriousness on the part of the students for the mass failure, just as students are saying that WAEC intentionally failed them.
Looking at students’ failure rate in the past three years, one could allude the downward trends to many factors.
Looking at students’ failure rate in the past three years, one could allude the downward trends to many factors.
Topmost on the list is the usage of GSM text message language which could be said tom be one of the causes of failure in English Language. Practice, they say, makes perfect. In construction of text messages, students often abbreviate words like everyone as every1, brother as broda, you as u, your as ur, education as educatn, tomorrow as 2moro to mention a few. Records abound from their examination answer scripts that many of these students tackle essay and letter-writing using the same abbreviated text language.
File photo: Cross section of students
Moreover, the rate at which students browse Facebook, Twitter, Badoo, Youtube, Myspace, Yahoo and LinkedIn is alarming. If only they could spend the number of hours they spend on Facebook facing their books, they will have a mastery of every subject.
Closely allied to the above is the issue of students’ usage of Blackberry and Blackberry Messenger (BBM). It is a common sight to see students with expensive phones that working adults cannot afford. They display these phones sending BBM in commercial vehicles, in the classroom and while walking on the street. The average Nigerian teenager uses the latest and most expensive GSM phones just to show that they belong when they are actually nothing. Candidly speaking, nobody can afford to criticise our teenagers if they are using the internet to enhance their academic performance.
Also, the negative role the English Premier, European Football and Champions Leagues play in the lives of our youths cannot be overemphasised.
Many of our students can tell you off-hand names of the first eleven football players in Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Barcelona FC without batting an eye. They can even dictate the league football time table to you without opening the table but during examination, this set of people will depend on microchip to answer simple academic questions in English Language and Mathematics. The same students who can remember the scores and scorers between Mancity United and Barcelona in 2004, cannot remember the formula for simultaneous equation. Ask him the square root of 50, he will tell you his teacher has never taught him before.
Do I need to mention the number of hours teenagers spend on daily basis watching movies on DSTV, StarTimes and HiTV? Many of the movies our children spend most of their time watching add no academic value to them. It is a thief of time.
Another point worth mentioning is the inordinate ambition for cheap fame and wealth. Many of our teenagers want to be millionaires before age 20 at the expense of academic pursuit. The government, some print media, electronic media and some companies have not helped the situation as some of them promote participation of teenagers in beauty contests.
Thus, the average Nigerian youth especially the girls, want to be Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria and make quick and cheap money and fame. They want to win Idol West Africa, MTN Project Fame, Big Brother Africa, Maltina Dance Hall, Peak Talent Hunt, Gulder Ultimate Search and be Nollywood stars without aspiring to be intellectuals.
The only talents our youths now have are music, dancing, acting and stand-up comedy, they no longer have talent for Mathematics, English Language, Biology, Chemistry and Physics. How will they pass? Since 2011 when WAEC intensified efforts to stop examination malpractice, we began to witness the true state of our students’ academic performance.
On the part of parents, they should regulate the activities of their children so that they can be more focused on their education than trends in our society. Many parents buy expensive phones for their children to enable them access all the social media platforms. They subscribe to several stations to keep their wards busy with movies and other uneducative programmes. If students must watch these time-wasting films, parents must time them. How many parents have reading time table for their children?
Today, parents are always on the road in search of money, new jobs and contracts. Many parents who complain of their children’s failure leave home at 4am depending on where they live, and come back 11pm, leaving their children in the care of house-helps and teachers in private schools.
Perhaps, such parents have forgotten that out of the 24 hours in a day, their children only spend 8am-2pm (six hours) in the hands of teachers; the remaining 18 hours are spent in the home. Sad enough, these same ever busy parents cannot look into the books of their teenagers, monitor what the teenagers watch nor who they associate with.
On the part of government, they are to be blamed for the decadence in the sector because of their weak education policies
On the part of government, they are to be blamed for the decadence in the sector because of their weak education policies
The Federal Government had on 18 March, 2014 in Abuja said that the foundation which formed the bedrock of the nation’s education policy had become obsolete. President Goodluck Jonathan made this known at the opening ceremony of the 20th Nigerian Economic Summit, with the theme: Transforming Education through Partnership for Global Competitiveness, in Abuja. He said: “The government has invested N561.9 billion in tertiary and secondary education between 2009 and last year.” The question begging for an answer is; what effort has it made to ensure the effective utilisation of the fund for same purpose?
Moreover, were it not for the poor economy of Nigeria, parents will not be moving from one job to another. It is not because they are not interested in resting, but what can the salary do to so many financial challenges confronting the family.
Many parents annual income is not up to N600,000. That is for those who earn N50,000 per month. This is a country where a student pays between N500,000 and N1,000,000 per session depending on the course offer and university. How do you expect such parents to cope? Little wonder they go for additional jobs.
This of course has been telling on when they leave and return back home. Research has shown that students from public schools fail more because of the poor funding of the schools. Teachers, often than not, are not paid their salaries, and this in turn makes them treat, teach, discipline and coordinate the students with levity.
Apart from the government, the education board also have an equal share in this blame. Schools, teachers and students are hardly monitored especially in the rural areas. Teachers go to school late, sometimes, they sit in their staff rooms gossiping while they ought to be teaching in the class. Why won’t the students fail when it is the same teachers who promise to help them with ‘’runs’’ (malpractice) in the exam if they ‘’cooperate’’ (pay the teachers to provide them with answers during exam).
Source: Vanguard News
Posted by , Published at 9:31 AM and have
