WASSCE 2011

WASSCE 2011: A Letter To Nigerian Secondary School Students

Haruna Manu Isah

“Success does not come to busy people, but to those that are productive”….Timawus Mathias

There is nothing amiss with the West African Examination Council’s exams as students are wont to think, but there is something fundamentally wrong with the Nigerian secondary school students. This writer has been engaged in advocacy lectures on reading culture for secondary school students for the past two years or so, therefore this letter is being written from the platform of experience. It is indubitable that there is systemic decay in our education sector, but let me quickly say that the Nigerian student is not helping the situation either. A quick glance at the statistics is very mind-boggling even to the least concerned observer.

In 2010, 98% of external students who sat for the WAEC,Nov/Dec flunked, or better put, failed the examination, likewise, 78% of who sat for NECO,Nov/Dec. And 80% of internal students, who sat for NECO and WASSCE May/Jun, bite the dust, respectively. It’s more worrisome that, on the 10^th August 2011, another bombshell was dropped by the West African Examination Council that only 31% of the 1,540,250 candidates, that sat for the WASSCE May/Jun passed the examinations. That is only 472,906 obtained five credits including mathematics and English this year. Dr.Iyi Uwadiare, the WAEC Head of National office further revealed that….”of the total, 55.34% (834,314 candidates) had credit and above in English Language, while only 38.93% (587,630 candidates) had credit and above in Mathematics”. A further breakdown of the results show that about 618,924 candidates, representing 40.55% had credit and above, irrespective of combinations, in six subjects, and 789,288 candidates, representing about 51.71% got credit in five subjects in similar fashion, while 943,187 candidates, that’s 60.01% struggled with credit and above in four subjects. To say the sordid truth, 69.01% which juxtaposed to more than one million candidates failed the examination as it stand, because only 31%(30.99) obtained the university requirements of five credits, with English and Mathematics to show.

Since the release of these results, there has been plethora of comments from different quarters adducing different reasons to this abysmal performance. Granted, that there is a serial decline in budgetary allocation to the education over the past decades. Granted too, that, there is poor quality of teaching staff across the length and breadth of this country. I equally admit that the parents have a quantum share of the blame for paying exorbitant fees to “miracle centers” just for their children/wards to get “good” grades without any stress. All these, one may agree with this writer, constitute just one part of the equation. What about the students’ component of the equation, if one may ask?

To begin with and without too much digression, the human brain is believed to have 14 billion cells. It is also put beyond any reasonable doubts that, irrespective of one’s race or tribal marks, barring any mental deformity, we are all gifted with this God given brain with 14 billion cells. Another resource at the disposal of any student is the gift of time. To date, nobody has ever spent more than 24hours in a day. Hence, Education Psychologists have told us, time and again, that it is the usage of these two resources that differentiate between an “A” and “F9” students. What this mean is that, the more than 1.5million candidates that wrote the May/Jun examination have 14billion brain cells and a gift of 24hours each, science has not proven otherwise as I write this letter. The stimulation and utilization of these make the difference in any human endeavor, including academics.

Now, let’s take a close look at who a typical Nigerian student is. On the average, a student is expected to spend about 8hours in school, which represents 33.3% of 24 hours, has anybody ever queried how the balance of 66.6% is being spent?. It may not be a surprise that, about 70% of Nigerian youth (9-24year olds) spend their valuable time watching MTV and MBCs. And substantial proportions are die-hard football fans. One may wish to visit any viewing center to appreciate this sad reality of Nigerian youth and by extension secondary school students. It is a major preoccupation now. The penchant for English Premier League, Champions League, Laliga, etc, has taken away their concentration from books and hence, academic performance becomes a victim. As if to corroborate this position, professor Akin Oyebole of the Department of Political Science, University of Lagos, opined at a book lunch in Lagos recently that…”the situation in Nigerian schools will not abate unless students abandon over-concentration on musical,television and government remunerate teachers properly”(Daily Sun,12,Aug) . The professor equally observed that the poor performance of student in the 2011 SSCE can be put squarely on society giving prominence to MTV and that young Nigerians are thinking of migrating into “becoming yahoo, yahoo boys”. The Nigerian secondary schools are sadly becoming colonies of football supporters. But somewhere, we were told that too much time spent watching that toy, called TV, causes obesity anyway!!

Look, one must admit that the society of today plays significant role in the performance of students. The society, no doubts, is guilty of conspiracy of silence on the present proliferation of “miracle centers”. So by act of commission or omission, the students are encouraged to stay glued to idleness and sadly, Nigeria is a country where idleness, perversion and nothingness are celebrated.

To negotiate the sharp bend of conclusion, one can summarily say without mincing words that, there is dearth of reading culture amongst Nigerian Secondary School Students. For instance, in the U.K, a student is expected to read fifty books every year from primary to secondary school, an average of one book per week. Sufficed it to ask, how many books do our students read per year?. Most definitely none!.. Therefore, no miracle can be performed if a student does not read and consequently, marks will always be on the run. And until reading culture is revived or imbibed, the country had not yet seen scary statistics from our Examination Bodies.

Last line: if you want to earn, you have to learn and if you want to lead, you have to read, the choice is yours.