Public Exams Mass Failure: Who is to Blame?

It is no longer news that our tomorrow leaders have repeatedly failed in the three major public exams i.e NECO, WAEC, and JAMB. Just recently, WAEC released another below average performance. This happened when Nigerians where already praising the tomorrow leaders for their above average performance in 2012 SSCE result released by NECO. This academic reputation has called for questions from concerned Nigerians attributing blames to government, exam bodies, teachers, parents, and the tomorrow leaders.

Following the flurry of reactions by concerned citizens to this ugly trend, I attribute my blame mostly to the tomorrow leaders. This is no way trying to say that the government have done enough or to absolve parents and others that are sharing from the blame. These tomorrow leaders have got the knife and the yam considering the fact that learning were teacher centred in the past. Why have they not make maximum use of this opportunity. There is no doubt that teachers are not the ones teaching us one hundred per cent of what we know. Knowledge comes through learning and this learning is not all about classroom teacher/student interaction. So, if a student fails to embrace learning, no matter the teachers effort, he will not cope. This is why age has no correlation with learning. What matters is the reading culture the learner adapted. The instructional materials for learning is at the tip of our fingers now considering the fact that teachers were the only available repository of knowledge in the past. How many of these tomorrow leaders are burning the popular mid night oil which was the key to success in the past? If you have ever taught in Nigerian schools, you would attest to the fact that this failure is a sure recipe for the less importance attitude that some of these tomorrow leaders attached to learning. You cannot give what you don’t have. It is as true as the gospel. We are only complaining of these failures in public exams because most schools are into mass promotion. This has covered the failure we would have noticed in the internal exams.

Weed out the charlatans among teachers, put the necessary infrastructures as government owe the people, name them.. If these children should not read, they can never attain the required height. Did I just omitted moral decadence? It has also contributed largely to this failure. A situation where correction is becoming a mind your business syndrome. Some don’t take correction even if it is for their good. Our conservative society is fastly turning into liberal one. Our moral upbringing has been relegated to background giving way to the western upbringing. .

I solicit the support and cooperation of all concerned citizens to ensure that these children are not given the free hand they are enjoying now. The spartan upbringing under the watchful eyes of parents should be the order of the day. Charity begins at home. Even in socialisation, parents are advised to be the one bringing up their children. Institutionalising them is not encouraged. I know boarden school will frown at this. It is how socialisation posits it.

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