Education-Nigeria - Educationists brainstorm over ways of stemming the tide of mass failure in the yearly Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination, even as students employ unorthodox ways of scaling through. Senior Secondary 3 Students of government secondary school, GSS, Jikwoyi and some of their colleagues at the sister school GSS Karu, seem to be resorting to divine steps to spearhead a rejuvenation in their academic fortunes. They have embarked on a day of fasting to forestall what they term 'the dreadful spate of mass failure of their seniors in the recent past.' The fast is not restricted to any particular faith and interestingly, it is fully backed by the school authorities.

A day free of academic work has been declared so that spiritual meditation devoid of distractions by testy teachers could be done by the students. The classes on this day are filled to capacity with students who have their heads bowed to their Creator beseeching his mercies and compassion as they prepare to face the behemoth called, SSCE in a few weeks to come.

They say that this time around they would do all it takes to ensure that they do not share in the dismal fortunes of their counterparts.

Ikechukwu Obiora, an SS3 student of the school, wears a pious look as he moves around encouraging his colleagues, many who could be seen clutching either a Bible or the Koran, while some others are muttering fervent prayers. There is no sign of any tutor in any of the classes. The usual boisterousness characterizing a high school is absent. Ikechukwu says that they, in conjunction with the school authorities, have decided on this measure in order to help themselves overcome the SSCE albatross. "We are concerned about the rate of failure that has characterized past SSCE exams. We do not want a reoccurrence. That is why we are setting today apart to seek God's face, even as we prepare for the exams which are expected to start in earnest in March. We are not concerned about religion now. As you can see both Christian and Muslim students are involved in the fast. Equally the school authorities have given us the day off. Lectures are to restart on Monday."

His colleague, Ajayi Amos saunters over. He wears a more relaxed façade. He says that even as they are fasting, the students are equally taking their studies seriously. "It is not all about fasting and prayers. We are also taking our studies seriously. Many of us are taking extra classes apart from those organized by the school. We also read in groups. We are determined to change the trend of failure in our own set. We know that with prayers and hard work we would be able to pass the exams in flying colours. We know that particular subjects such as Mathematics, English and the science subjects always give students problems every year. We have decided to employ a spiritual approach to ensuring that we pass these subjects. Deciding not to eat or drink for a day, is a small price to pay in order to pass our exams."

While the students are forthcoming with information about their plight, mum is the word for the teachers. From the head of the institutions to the staff, the fear of reprimand from 'higher authorities' far outweigh any attempt to proffer solutions to the spate of failures amongst their protégés. A visibly petrified principal of one of the suburban schools whose name is omitted for obvious reasons, says, under condition of anonymity, that decaying infrastructure, lack of finance, insincerity on the part of the administrators of education in the nation, amongst a host of other factors accounts for the mass failure in student examinations, especially at the senior secondary school level."

Many of us have been caged from talking to the press by those at the education board. They either threaten us with sack or disciplinary actions. At the last meeting we had with the education board, we were made to take an undertaking that we would not speak with the press except under strict permission from them. That is why most of us keep quiet over the injustice going on in our educational system. We all know the solutions to these problems and even you media people are aware. It is a foundational problem. Those administering our education in Nigeria, are inept and insincere. The needed infrastructure is not there. The finance of quality education is absent. Those who are supposed to speak out are either silenced or sorted out, so that they cannot complain. Our classes are overcrowded and teachers are overworked. So how do you expect the students to cope under such hardship? As I said earlier it is a foundational problem and until it is tackled, we will continue to experience such failures amongst our students, who through no fault of theirs are made to study under harsh conditions. We all know the problems of higher education in this country and the solutions," he asserts heatedly.

The nation was recently shocked when it was informed that only 20.04 per cent of 310,077 candidates who sat for the Nov/Dec 2010 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) obtained five credits in English Language, Mathematics and three other subjects, therefore qualifying to apply for admission into Nigerian universities and polytechnics. By these results the implication was that the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) recorded yet another mass failure, just like it has done for the past few years.

It would be recalled that three years ago in the Nov/Dec 2008 WASSCE, out of 372,600 candidates, only 23.54 per cent obtained five credits in English Language, Mathematics and three other subjects while in the same exam in 2009, out of 342,443 candidates, only 31 per cent (106,413) made five credits in English Language, Mathematics and three other subjects.

The Head of National Office, West African Examination Council (WAEC), Dr. Iyi Uwadiae recently attributed the high failure rates in examinations conducted by the council to several factors. He said WAEC, as a body entrusted with the conduct of the examination, should not be seen as the source of students' woes because the council does not fail candidates deliberately. Through his Deputy Registrar/Controller, Science Department, Mrs Olayinka Ajibade, he stated at a recent education summit, held at the University of Lagos, that the poor performance of most students in the examination was not attributable to lack of academic knowledge alone. According to him some candidates 'lacked knowledge of common pitfalls, coupled with inadequate coverage of the syllabus and non-familiarity with the test format.' He added that many candidates did not adhere to rubrics and often lack understanding of the demand of questions, further advising that students build an appreciable level of proficiency in English, which would assist them in understanding questions posed in exams."The remedy is to read and understand the instructions before making any choice. Avoid rote learning which results in shallow knowledge of the subject matter," he advised.

Recently the Council also announced that it was considering various ideas it hopes would reduce the spate of malpractices and mass failures recorded during examinations. The council has commenced a smooth transition from manual to electronic testing and marking of scripts. This ultimately means that candidates would soon write all examinations conducted by WAEC on the computer, using designated software. The Head of the Nigerian National Office (HNO) of WAEC, Iyi Uwadiae, disclosed this in Lagos recently, saying that future marking of examinations would be done electronically. The essence, according to him, is to reduce the enormous time wasted in manual marking of papers, and to also reduce the incidence of malpractices among candidates who sit for the examinations.

"We are working on how we can use electronic means to test and mark papers. By this, the examiners would be allocated papers to mark from the exam venues, and there will be automatic means of checking poor markings," he said.

Dr Emman Shehu, an educationist and director of the International Institute of Journalism, sees the trend as 'a systemic breakdown that ought to be stemmed before it gets out of hands.' In a chat with this medium he proffers an urgent solution to arrest the slide in fortunes for the SSCE. "There have been signs long before now about the slide, but as it is in this country nobody takes notice. It has now reached a point where it seems the system is collapsing. Something drastic has to be done or it could get worse.'

He adds: 'We live in a society where our priorities are misplaced. It all started with emphasis on paper qualification. There is nothing wrong with that, but how do you get the paper qualification? We live in a society where corruption is endemic, and there is the love for shortcuts in achieving our aims and objectives.'

'Right from the basic education level, the type of people who are imparting knowledge are not knowledgeable. Being knowledgeable doesn't only mean knowing what you are teaching, but equally knowing how to teach it. So we now have the handout culture where people cannot read beyond what they are given as handouts in the universities, for instance. The rot is replicated in our secondary schools. Also the structures are not there. It is criminal that in a country where we earn billions as oil revenue, some of our students still learn under trees. It is a known fact that your environment influences your learning.

So when you put all these things together with poor remuneration of teachers, at the end of the day you see that we are in trouble. Also you find out now that there is emphasis on extra mural lessons by teachers, and what bothers me is the fact that if we put in so much money into training our wards at these schools, and they still have to go for extra lessons that take up a long period of time, then there is obviously a problem. During our time we didn't do extra lessons, yet we did extremely well... until we begin to change our value system and outlook towards education, we will still continue to have problems.'

Tosin Omoniyi

Daily Trust/11/02/2011