MY government is considering a proposal to transfer the boys (students) who have shown little promise, to institutions which provide practical training. As regards those who failed exams, the lazy and indolent ones, I see little point in government giving further financial assistance to their education”.
Ahmadu Bello Sardauna, 1963.
It seems as if the above quote from a speech delivered to students of Zaria Government College on 16th of September 1963 by the late Premier of the defunct Northern Region was only made yesterday. Rt. Honourable Aminu Bello Masari, Governor of Katsina state recently handed down a similar rebuke to secondary school students of the state for their poor performance in the qualifying mock examinations recently reintroduced by his administration.
It will be recalled that the State Ministry of Education recently released gory statistics of students’ performance in the Mock Exams where out of 46,000 students that sat for the exams, only 10% or 4,600 students passed while 90% or 41,400 students failed woefully.
If it were the actual exams where the state government would have paid an average of N10,000 per candidate, it then means the sum of N460m would have been expended and since only 4600 students passed the exams, it means N414m would have been wasted with only N46m expended for good cause. Imagine the quantum of funds already expended by the state government for eight years with no tangible results!
Masari, who was visibly angry with the results, vowed to stop the payment of entrance examination fees for those students who fail mock exams. The policy was initiated by the immediate past governor of the state, Ibrahim Shehu Shema, where the state government used to purchase West African Examinations Council (WAEC), National Examination Council (NECO) and National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB) forms for free distribution to final year students.
The governor explained that the purpose of paying the examination fees is defeated because students are unserious. “You pay exam fees for a student who spends four years at home not attending school only to come and sit for the examination”. He said the state faced a bleak future in education if it continues to record dismal performance in critical examinations, predicting that the situation would soon get to a point where students from the state would no longer pass qualifying examinations to universities.
By insisting on qualifying mock exams, the administration will be saving a lot of money that would have gone down the drain if spent on the wasteful expenditure given the poor performance of the students in past examinations.
This new policy as expected sparked a lot of criticisms amongst parents, teachers and students, most of whom are from poor background. While it is understandable that the beneficiaries of this scheme must cry foul, it will be economically unwise and counterproductive for government to continue to spend scarce resources on unserious students especially in the face of dwindling revenues accruing to the state from the Federation Account. The money thus saved could be channeled towards more productive endeavours like building of more schools and the provision of instructional materials.
It should be noted that long before now, universities in the country were compelled to administer Post-UME exams on candidates who normally register high scores in JAMB exams and SSCE/NECO yet could not measure up to the academic rigour in the university, hence the need to subject them to another test which some fail woefully despite their getting the required cut-off mark.
It is instructive that before the introduction of the 6-3-3-4 system of education in the late 80’s, final year students had to write mock exams to test their state of preparedness for the GCE O’Levels. Such exams proved useful in preparing them adequately for the final exams which they pass in flying colours. It is in view of the above that the reintroduction of mock qualifying exams by the Masari administration should be seen by all right-thinking people as a welcome development.
Besides encouraging hard work amongst students and reducing wasteful spending, especially in the face of dwindling resources, the new policy will also free more funds that can be used to address other challenges in the sector.
It is a well known fact that when parents of lazy students who could not pass the mock exams are made to pay exam fees for their wards, they will impress it on their children to work harder as failure means losing their hard earned money. On the other hand, students would also strive to pass their exams so as not to let their parents down.
In addition to this measure, government should also subject teachers, especially those who teach Mathematics and English, to a similar test, to weed out the bad eggs as it is common knowledge that very few of the teachers themselves can make credit in these exams. This is why the administration’s resolve to recruit about 3,000 teachers should be applauded.
0 comments :
Post a Comment