ERC: What kind of JSS results?

Coming on the heels of this year’s dismal performance in WASCE, which showed that only about 31 percent of candidates obtained a minimum of five credits including Mathematics and English Language, the situation must be a source of genuine concern to all patriots.The JSS results were a tale of woes for numerous students, parents and […]

Coming on the heels of this year’s dismal performance in WASCE, which showed that only about 31 percent of candidates obtained a minimum of five credits including Mathematics and English Language, the situation must be a source of genuine concern to all patriots.
The JSS results were a tale of woes for numerous students, parents and teachers in many schools across the FCT. The results did not reflect reality either at the level of most of the individual students or that of confirmed trends and patterns of some of the schools. At best, it read like fiction borne out of a delirious dream. What kind of results could claim that the best student in the class, who had consistently scored between 80 and 90 in all subjects, could only manage to obtain four or five A’s in the JSCE? What kind of results would give an academically struggling student 10 A’s to the utter surprise and amusement of the parents? The results of a particular student included two subjects that she had not even sat for. And, to add insult to injury, she failed both subjects.
In some cases, where candidates had been mandated by the school to choose only one of a pair of subjects, both subjects were recorded for the students notwithstanding the fact that they only wrote one as directed.
This travesty of a result and assault on the future of the next generation must not be treated with the usual levity which rationalizes serious anomalies as simply the normal ‘Naija’ phenomenon. The relevant authorities are hereby challenged to thoroughly investigate the cause of this outrage. And this should go beyond the ERC to possibly include the education committees of the National Assembly, as well as the Federal Ministry of Education.
It would be disingenuous to blame computer error in this ICT age when all possible applications and software are available for virtually every task except, perhaps, for the purpose of bringing the dead back to life. Imagine the level of absurdity if the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) or the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) were to plead massive computer errors for such an atrocious performance in compiling their results.
If the cause of the ERC debacle is traced to incompetence or deliberate mischief, appropriate sanctions must be applied to serve as a deterrent against future recurrence. Adequate measures must also be taken to ensure that the short-changed students are not left in the lurch for no fault of theirs.
Beyond the immediate short-term implications of this scandal is the potential damage to the educational system in the medium and long term. In the event that corruption is a factor, it would represent a further descent into the cesspool of institutional decay in the country and further destabilize the nation’s educational foundation. Besides, the perpetrators would be emboldened to continue in their affront to more dangerous levels without counting the incalculable damage that would be done to the psyche of the young victims of this perfidy.
A cursory analysis of the incidence of these bizarre results indicates that private schools are mostly affected. Does this mean anything? The answer is blowing in the wind. That accentuates the need for urgent conduct of exhaustive investigations in order to prevent possible erosion of confidence in the system.
The ERC must conduct adequate background checks on persons selected to mark examination scripts, and closely supervise them to ensure that the exercise is carried out in accordance with standard regulations. An individual marker should be easily matched with the school and the particular script/scripts marked by him or her. In this way, individuals would be held accountable when things go horribly wrong. Henceforth, nothing should be left to chance.
Under the harsh glare of the 21st –century global village, we cannot afford to wash our educational linen in public in this manner. It has been widely acknowledged that, in some important respects, the nation’s educational system has been driven in reverse gear for several decades. The present government’s transformation programme, however, has seen commendable improvements in the educational sector as in many other sectors. Therefore, anything that could indicate a setting back of the hand of the clock through commission, omission or negligence must be tackled with the seriousness it deserves.
Nigeria is still a long way from UNESCO’s recommended annual education budget of at least 26 percent of total allocation. But with political will and total commitment on the part of all stakeholders, that target may not remain a mirage for too long.
It is on record that meaningful economic development can only be accelerated by paying the needful attention to a nation’s educational foundation. This point has been emphatically made by the Asian countries that are the toast of the world today. The ERC must be assisted or compelled, if necessary, to take the future of the nation’s children seriously. Lame excuses at this time would be absolutely unacceptable.
Belolisa is a retired civil servant and lives in Abuja.