BY BEN AGANDE

ABUJA-Worried by the poor performance of students in public examinations like the West African Examination Council, WAEC, and National Examination Council, NECO, the House of Representatives Tuesday resolved to conduct an investigation in order to unearth the cause of the poor performance.

This followed the adoption of a motion on the need to review and realign secondary school curricula towards checkmating mass failure in examinations.

Sponsor of the motion, Jerry Alagbaso noted that the change from the 6-3-3-4 system to the 9-3-4 system without proper alignment of curricula has engendered the mass failure by students in public examinations as witnessed in recent years.

According to him, “reviewing and realigning our secondary school curricula will definitely enrich our educational system and to that extent guard against mass failures in examinations”, adding that “these failures if not checked now will continue to portray the states and federal Ministry of Education, their management and other promoters of education in bad light”.

Chairman of the House Committee on Education, Hon. Faruk Lawan noted that the problem of mass failure in examinations is not so much as a result of realignment of curricula as it is with the failure of relevant agencies to monitor the performance of teachers, as well as the decline in the quality of teachers being employed these days.

Some members of the House also called on the government to compel those in charge of education to send their children and wards to public schools in order to check the dilapidation in both the structure and quality of public schools.