- Improved performances in public examinations must be maintained
After years of disappointing performances, Nigeria’s beleaguered secondary education system has something to cheer at last. About 59.22 per cent of candidates who sat for the May/June diet of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) passed with at least five credits including English Language and Mathematics.
This represents the highest proportion of standard passes in recent times. While the 2016 May/June diet recorded similar levels of success with a 52.97 standard pass rate, the preceding years were uniformly disappointing. In 2015, it was 38.68 per cent. It was 31.28 per cent in 2014. The figures for 2013, 2012 and 2010 are 36.57 per cent, 38.81 per cent and 24.94 per cent, respectively.
The fact that this feat was achieved in the face of economic recession, recurring teachers’ strikes and unending security challenges makes it all the more impressive. By choosing to focus on their strengths rather than lament their weaknesses, the candidates displayed the characteristic indomitability of the Nigerian spirit. Schools and teachers are to be congratulated as well, for the sacrifices they made to ensure that their candidates succeeded legitimately.
However, these triumphs should not blind the nation to continuing problems, some of which paradoxically stem from the high pass rate itself.
One of the more obvious issues is the vexed problem of examination malpractice. The results of 13.79 per cent of the candidates were withheld in connection with suspected collusion and various forms of cheating. This figure represents more than one in 10 of the 1,559,192 candidates who sat the examination, and does not account for the many instances where such malpractices were successfully perpetrated. It is an indication that far too many candidates are still prepared to risk everything to cheat in the firm belief that they can get away with it.
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) must continue to treat this problem with all the seriousness that it deserves. To this end, it should embark on a name-and-shame campaign in which schools and examination centres that are known for malpractices are exposed and banned. The financial and reputational consequences are very likely to compel a rethink.
The 40.78 per cent of candidates who were unable to acquire standard passes must not be forgotten. The configuration of their results means that they cannot obtain university admission. This should not be the end of the world, but the lack of viable educational and vocational options in Nigeria is a major concern.
Greater efforts must be made to ensure that the country’s polytechnics, monotechnics and vocational institutions offer a worthwhile alternative to candidates who did not do so well in the WASSCE. The Federal Government’s commendable attempts to attain parity between Bachelor’s degree and Higher National Diploma (HND) holders must be complemented by enabling more polytechnics to award Bachelor’s degrees. Vocational institutions should re-configure their curricula to make them more relevant to the needs of the industrial sector. Universities should expand their distance-learning and part-time programmes.
As WAEC continues to improve its services, it must be especially careful to ensure that it does not succumb to the very real temptation posed by grade-inflation. It is odd, for example, that more candidates are securing passes in English Language at a time when the quality of spoken English by students in Nigeria has fallen to abysmal levels.
The council should ensure its laudable desire to lower the waiting-period of its candidates from 90 days to 45 days does not result in quality being sacrificed for speed. Faster delivery times put increased pressure on markers to get through hundreds of scripts much more quickly than before, and may result in them abandoning the careful discernment that is vital to accurate marking.
