Tackling mass failure in WAEC, NECO

Performances of students in the two examinations have been fluctuating over the years and the problem has been attributed to so many challenges faced by the students which include distractions, social values; poor incentives for teachers, lack of good libraries and laboratories, and above all dearth of qualified teachers. Other challenges include students’ inability to […]

Performances of students in the two examinations have been fluctuating over the years and the problem has been attributed to so many challenges faced by the students which include distractions, social values; poor incentives for teachers, lack of good libraries and laboratories, and above all dearth of qualified teachers.
Other challenges include students’ inability to study and prepare for the exams, inability of teachers and parents to prepare the students adequately, government’s failure to provide suitable environment for learning and lack of teaching and learning materials in our schools.

Exam malpractice
It was observed that, in Nigeria today, we have what is referred to as ‘special’ and or ‘miracle’ centres for WAEC and NECO examinations. In such centres, candidates obtain distinctions and credits in the two examinations with ease. But most of them cannot defend their results.
The development has continuously aided cases of examination malpractice in the country. A statistic from the NECO office indicates that during the November 2011(NECO) exam, Oyo state had 6, 579 cases of examination malpractice followed by Adamawa state with 36 cases.
Also in 2012, a total of 21,274 cases of exams malpractices were recorded across the country with Kano state topping the list with 649 cases and Lagos state second with 238 cases.

Massive failure
A total of 299,784 candidates have their results processed out of which 161, 721 candidates or 54.48 percent got five credits and above in the November/December 2013 WAEC. But out of the figures, only 86, 612 obtained credits in mathematics and English language.
Therefore, according to the record, only 29.17 percent of the 299,784 students actually passed the exam, while 70.83 percent failed.  
But for the 2013 NECO, an improvement was recorded as 25,630 representing 33. 89 percent of the 75,623 candidates that sat for the exams got credits in English language and 41, 228 or 54.79 per cent of the 75, 245 that sat for Mathematics got credits.
A total of 139, 827 candidates that sat for the same examination in 2011 bagged five credits including Mathematics and English language, and 150,615 students or 37.97 percent of the total candidates that participated in the exam in 2012 got five credits including Mathematics and English language.
Also, statistics for the 2011/2012 June/July National Examination Council (NECO) Senior School Certificate Examination indicates that only 22% got at least credit in English and about 25% in Mathematics.
And for the November/December 2011/2012 NECO exam, only 15, 669 or 14.15 per cent of the 104,187 candidates that sat for English language passed, while 75,355 or 68.06 per cent failed.
A total of 101,792 candidates sat for Mathematics but only 45,547 or 41.19 per cent got credit and above, while 10,328 representing 9.34 per cent ended with ordinary pass.
In Physics, 43,504 representing 90.05 per cent failed, while 24 candidates or 0.05per cent obtained credit and above. Out of the 97,595 that sat for Biology, only 8,109 or 7.57 per cent got a pass, while 75,486 or 70.48 per cent failed. A total of 44,950 students sat for Chemistry but only 2,577 or 5.32 per cent got credit and above, 3,432 or 7.09 per cent got pass and 37,973 or 78.39 per cent failed. In Further Mathematics, of the 3,271 that sat for it, 48 or 1.05 per cent had credit and above, 101 or 2.21per cent with pass and 3,085 or 67.64 per cent failed.

Ways out
Concerned over the situation, Majority Leader in the House of Representatives, Rep. Mulikat Adeola-Akande, has moved a motion seeking for a stiffer punishment for the culprits of examination malpractices in the country. The motion has already passed the second reading.
An educationist, Professor Pai Obanya, has said that unless the country adheres strictly to good governance and rules of law, the education sector will continue to face challenges. He said: “We need a shift from the classrooms learning to the real learning. Education should be given priority above other sectors. We need adequate qualified teachers, conducive environment and enough teaching and learning materials.”
 Mr. Adekunle Ademola, a secondary school teacher, said the problem lies on bad teachers, corruption especially among heads of schools. He said: “If you go to most schools, you will discovered that 50 per cent, if not more than that, of the WAEC/NECO candidates are not students of the school; they are imported from outside purposely for the exams.”
“Most of the teachers in our schools are not qualified including those that obtained NCE certificates. I know a teacher that obtained NCE certificate but cannot write a simple correct sentence in English. Another factor is the emergence of ITC; most students are pre-occupied with social media such as facebook, 2go and whatsapp among others; they spend more of their time on these media than reading their books. Unless we address these problems, the situation will not change for the better,” he lamented.