by Chukwuemerie Uduchukwu
In a desperate mood to acquire a very good certificate or result….some candidates in collaboration with their parents or guardians involve in various kinds of malpractices and usually prefer to sit for exams like WAEC, NECO and UTME in magic centers or towns.
It is a pity that after about 50 years of Independence, Nigerian education standard is still among the worst in Africa. That is why the nation’s certificates lack value internationally. The results announced by various examination bodies such as West African Examinations Council, WAEC, National Examination Council, NECO, and Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB usually show massive failure by the candidates.
Stakeholders in the education sector have given reasons for mass failure which range from lack of reading culture to lack of necessary learning facilities in various schools across the country. These are facts but too much emphasis on paper qualification in Nigeria is the main catalyst to the declining standard of Nigeria education standard.
In a desperate mood to acquire good certificates which is widely seen as the basic requirement for employment and admission into tertiary institutions within the country, some candidates often times in collaboration with their parents or guardians, get involved in various kinds of malpractices by sitting for exams like WAEC, NECO and UTME in so-called magic centers or towns.
This results to the production of ill-skilled graduates thereby increasing the rate of under-development as such ill-skilled graduates cannot contribute meaningfully to the development of our dear nation.
Moreover, the results of 2013 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, organised by The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB showed a massive failure. Though during the announcement of the 2013 UTME results, the JAMB registrar Professor Dibu Ojerinde disclosed that there was an improvement in the level of performance by candidates compared to that of last year, many results seen so far showed high level of failure as it is difficult to see a candidate that scored above 200. This created some doubt on the statistics of performance released by JAMB.
The board stated that out of approximately 1.6 million candidates that sat for 2013 UTME Paper-base test, 10 candidates scored 300 and above, 628 candidates scored 270 to 299, 33115 candidates scored 250 to 269, 704,622 candidates scored 200 to 249, 571,298 candidates scored 170 to 199, 103,489 candidates scored 160 to 169, while 127,017 candidates scored 159 and less.
These statistics showed that only 738,375 candidates out of the approximated 1.6 million candidates that sat for the exam scored 200 and above while 861, 625 candidates failed to score up to 200.
Moreover, there are many candidates that were denied access to their results due to their inability to have biometric verification at their various examination centres. Some of these candidates claimed that their invigilators willingly denied them biometric verification due to its time wasting while some candidates claimed that poor network service prevented them from biometric verification.
Though JAMB has promised to look into the issue, it should always endeavour to put some measures in place to enhance the success of any of its policies before implementation. They should always provide enough biometric verification machines and employ the services of reliable Internet Service Providers. Also JAMB should ensure that the results website is up before publicly announcing the results to prevent candidates from experiencing difficulties in assessing their results.
Ojerinde should also endeavour give the public the correct website of viewing results. It is improper for him to announce a wrong website in a press conference as he did while announcing this year UTME results. He disclosed that the result checking website was www.myjambresult.com, a claim which was later discovered to be false. The correct web address turned out to be www.jamb.org.ng/unifiedtme1 .
Apart from JAMB, other examination should put necessary measures to strengthen the quality of the exams.
No candidate should be allowed to sit for any exam outside his or her state of residence. Also candidates should submit evidence showing their states of residence during the course of registration of any examination. This is because there is no justifiable reason for a candidate to sit for exam outside his or her state of residence.
Also candidates above the age of 30 should be denied registration for any examination. The government should establish an Adult Education Examination Board to oversee the conduct of exams for candidates above the age of 30. This will enhance quality and standard of various examinations because those candidates will be strictly screened and invigilated during their exams.
Also for any candidate to qualify to sit for WAEC and NECO May-June/June-July examinations in any center, such a candidate must provide an evidence that he or she was a student of such school for a minimum of 3 years.
Finally, the government should eradicate paper qualification principle. These will certainly improve our education standard and goodwill.
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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.
