Inside NECO’s national tragedy of sorts

As the failure level of senior secondary school leavers continues to soar, concern continues to build up on the state of Nigeria’s academic fortunes against the backdrop of pursuit of excellence in human capital development. The steady fall in the educational sector as reflected in the churning out of half-baked students in schools across the […]

As the failure level of senior secondary school leavers continues to soar, concern continues to build up on the state of Nigeria’s academic fortunes against the backdrop of pursuit of excellence in human capital development. The steady fall in the educational sector as reflected in the churning out of half-baked students in schools across the country, appears to have given rise to the recent outcome of National Examination Council (NECO) exams, drawing reactions from different strata of society.  
The November/December 2009 NECO Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE) result has further eroded hopes for improvement in the academic field as it fell further past last year May/June’s internal results, which were also bedevilled by mass failure. Only 1.80 percent of candidates that sat for the November 2009 NECO examination passed with five credits including English and Mathematics, while the May/June examination recorded a paltry 10 percent success level.  
Shocking numbers
Statistical analysis shows that 1.80 percent that passed represent 4,223 candidates out of the total of 236,613 that sat for the examination across 1,708 centres spread across the country where the examinations were conducted. Those who scored above five credits irrespective of subjects were 12,197 representing 5.20 percent, adding that total cases of examination-related malpractices amounted to 236,613.  
Ogun State came best with 1,076 representing 5.25 percent, while Lagos state produced the second best with 900 candidates, representing 5.45 percent then Abia recorded 39 candidates representing 4.41 percent. The records also showed cases of malpractice ranking Kogi State highest with 27.63 percent, with Bauchi coming next with 23.08 percent and Ondo third with 23.06 percent.  
Places where malpractices were recorded less includes, FCT Abuja, ranking lowest with 1.14 percent, then Abia with 1.72 percent while Oyo came third with 4.63 percent. A close glance at last May/June’s examination results shows a sharp decline in the performance of students as at least 10 percent passed while the November/December results showed less than two percent success. From the statistics, out of a total number of 1,184,907 candidates who applied for the May/June 2009 examinations only 289,966 representing 10 percent of the entire number passed five papers including mathematics and English language.  
Let the blame-trading begin
From same examination, a record breaking number of 32,414 cases of malpractices was recorded out of a total of 1,184, 907 candidates that sat for the SSCE across the country. According to the Registrar of NECO, Professor Promise Okpala, the examination body over the years has continued to advance techniques on checking malpractice at all levels. Blaming the mass cases of examination malpractices in secondary schools on the society, Okpala told Weekly Trust that schools, parents and pupils are to blame, adding that until a positive attitude towards learning is cultivated, the trend will continue. “The question we need to ask ourselves is whether the students are well-taught or if the classrooms are conducive enough for learning as our schools have compromised in standards of education,” he said, adding that the tightened security measures in examination halls has exposed how unprepared students are across the country, as it has shown in what he termed as the most abysmal results in recent times. “We have realized that the concept of mass cheating is not limited to students but principals and teachers too,” he said.  
Contending Okpala’s position, the principal of a secondary school at the Chanchaga area of Minna, Niger State, said most schools are putting in their best to ensure that students get the best, academically. In his reaction he maintained that after giving so much to students the school and the teaching staff cannot be held responsible if the students fail to deliver. Reflecting on what obtained in the past at the school he heads, the principal noted that his students were doing well until suddenly the results nosedived.   
A director at the Federal Ministry of Education who spoke to Weekly Trust on condition of anonymity said NECO cannot be blamed for the mass failure that happened during the last exams as some of the schools are the actual culprits. “Some schools do not engage the services of qualified teachers. Half-baked teachers with low knowledge of the subject they are teaching is one of the major banes,” she said, adding that there is the need for schools and major stakeholders in the education sector to pull all their acts together. “We cannot afford to take the education of our future leaders for granted,” she said.
Dr Eric Amadi, an educationist who lectures at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST) opines that the result is a reflection of the years of neglect that the education sector has suffered under successive governments in the country. “Students cut corners but come out half-baked due to many factors. Some of these are inadequate equipment, poor reading culture, encouragement of desperate parents who want their children to have dazzling results at any cost,” Dr Amadi explained told Weekly Trust. He said the antidote is for government at all levels to invest in education  in a way that will conform to the prescription of  UNESCO, which stipulates that a minimum of 26% of a country’s budget should go into funding education.
On her part, Elizabeth Ikinger, a teacher in Community Secondary School, Bolo in Okrika local government area of Rivers State refused to believe in the NECO statistics. She asked “Is it that teaching did not take place anywhere in the country or that students did not register for the examinations?” She said it is not possible for such thing to have occured unless if all the students stayed away and had proxy representation in the examination halls. “NECO should review their marking scheme,” she suggested.
Students…of failure?
Some of the affected students have come out boldly to state why they failed woefully in their exams. According to one Happiness Atumo, who got only three credits out of the nine subjects she entered for, “I failed because of lack of adequate preparation, interest and also because our teachers don’t come to class to teach.”
Oge Agamu, who wrote her NECO exam at a school in Ketu, Lagos, got five credits and is now preparing for the forthcoming WAEC. She said she failed due to a lack of textbooks and concentration. Anita Umoren, who narrowly obtained four credits without English and Maths from a school in Surulere, Lagos, believed her failure in the NECO exams is to be blamed on the buying-over of external supervisors who now permit only those who have money to bribe them with during exams.
Abass Tiamiyu, a former student of Living-Stone Model College, Ketu, told Weekly Trust that many secondary school students are exposed to many distractions. Then according to Rilwan Lasisi, from a school in Igando-Ikotun local government, “Most times, many students rely on ‘expo’ (leaked questions) to pass exams, but quite often it doesn’t always work out as expected as it may be fake. Students who have not studied for the exams will definitely fail woefully.”
However, Mr.Ojolo Olufemi, director of Larafem Tutorial Centre in Mile Two, Lagos, maintained that the problem requires more urgent action than pointing of fingers, as everybody is guilty. The Educationist revealed that students come to tutorial centres looking for ‘runs’, which simply means external help of any sort – mostly illegal – during or after exams.
The National Parents/Teachers Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN) also raised alarm over the continued poor performance of students. The body made this resolution at its 70th National Executive meeting which was attended by all its members from across the country. Various issues plaguing the educational sector were deliberated upon, after which a communiqué was released. The body maintained that it has reviewed the performance of students at the recently released 2009 NECO examination and noticed that the standard of education is gradually falling. NAPTAN urged the federal, state and local governments to as a matter of urgency organize an education summit with all the stakeholders in the sector to discuss the way forward.
Stakeholders driving a stake through education’s heart?
A one-time commissioner of education in Kaduna State, Mr. Tom Maiyashi, blamed governors and those managing the education sector for its problems. “Many people who found themselves managing education have no business in the sector, they don’t have the correct attitude, they don’t know the problems of the sector, they don’t understand the challenges,” he added. According to him, the structure of education is so bad that the classroom is remote, so far away from the structure as all those claiming to be working for the revival of the sector are not serious. “We have not been able to take a decisive decision to make sure that the appropriate resources that are required are invested in the education sector go round all the state and ask the governors or the commissioners of education what the unit cost of education in their state is, they don’t know. You need to know the unit cost of education for you to have good education policies,” he said.
Kano State Governor, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, heaping blame on his predecessor while responding to a caller’s question last week on a phone-in radio programme, said the state was still bearing the brunt of the exit of some experienced teachers on the premise that they were not indigenes of the state. He said the sack of such experienced hands might be linked to failures in NECO in the state. According to him, although on assumption into office, he immediately employed 5,000 teachers to save the collapse of the system, he said ghosts of the sacked teachers still haunt the state’s education sector.
But the principal of Spring Secondary School, Kano, Mr. Patrick Okezie, attributed the failure to unavailability of reading materials and added that some teachers lack experience of the technicalities inherent in answering SSCE questions. “So if the teachers lack such experience, the students would not know how to tackle the questions,” said Mr Okezie, who is also a NECO examiner. A senior NECO official in Kano Zonal Office said the students do not read the syllabus as much as they either engage in playing football or watching English Premier League, among others. The official said NECO would not just fail the students without a reason. According to him, each state’s paper was usually swapped with another state’s paper with a view to ensuring fairness and credibility. Although he said the percentage of the failure was yet to be available to them, indications showed that the state also felt the heat of the failure rather severely.
Professor Ukachkwu Awuzie, President, Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU), said the poor performance in the NECO exams is not surprising as most discerning Nigerians saw it coming. “We like to play the ostrich in this country. We are creating an impression as if the result the NECO exam jolted us out of the blue. What on earth do you expect to happen in a system that has continuously failed to invest in education?”
Awuzie toldd Weekly Trust that ASUU is about convening a national summit on education to address issues. “We in ASUU are already planning a comprehensive national education summit where people like Professor Babatunde Fafunwa and others who have been in education all these years will be there. The summit will address the issue of funding, curriculum and reformatory education that will instil discipline and patriotism among students.” But Hamza Lawal, an external candidate based in Kaduna, smirked at the mention of the summit. “It will most likely be another lofty idea, full of talk and absolutely no action,” he told Weekly Trust, adding that scepticism aside, he hopes it works, even if a little. “Education, from the bottom up, is rotting fast in this country,” Lawal said, shaking his head.