by Rachel Ogbu

Nine students who had distinctions in their First School Leaving Certificate examinations, were not able to write their names during another test conducted on them, it has been revealed.

The Commissioner for Education, Akwa Ibom State, Eunice Thomas said this during capacity building workshop for primary school teachers in Uyo Senatorial District on Saturday,

The disclosure came as a shock to the Akwa Ibom State governor, Godswill Akpabio, who had directed all principals to select the best pupils from FSLC examination in their schools, one in each of the 31 local government areas of the state to a designated school, where they were re-examined.

Represented by the permanent secretary, Ministry of Education, Chrisantus Asuka, Thomas according to reports, said apart from the nine pupils who were from the state public primary schools, many others could not even score up to 5 per cent in the test.

“We conducted a pre-test and say let’s introduce subjective questions, and not objective questions that one person will stand in the exam hall and just call out A or B to the candidates and they all will shape or thick the correct answer.

“At the end you realise that the child that scores 100 per cent cannot if tested properly score 5 per cent.

“How did we discover this? In 2011, Akpabio directed all heads of schools to take the best pupils from FSLC examinations, one person per local government areas of the state.

“We sent them to school – honestly, out of this number sent, nine were unable to write their names, while many others besides the nine could not score up to 5 per cent in the test,” she said.