By Amaka  Abayomi

Over 1.7 million senior secondary school students across the country are presently sitting for the May/June West Africa Senior Secondary School Examinations (WASSSE). The exams, which started in April with the practicals, will end Tuesday, 17th May.

On the preparations for the examinations, the Deputy Director, Public Affrairs, WAEC, Mr. Yusufu Ari, said the exam body has employed preventive measures to monitor materials and centres.

“A total of 1,695,872 registered candidates have been processed, which is a 155,622 increase from the 1,540,250 that registered in 2011.

“There was nothing like exam malpractice in the early 70s’. Though we are winning the war against malpractice by students and teachers, we have put in place a lot of preventive measures like monitoring the materials to ensure that they are secured and not tampered with. Also, exam centres are being monitored to make sure students obey all rules and regulations.”

It would be recalled that students have been recording mass failures in examinations such as UTME, NECO and WAEC. For the fourth year running, candidates who wrote the May/June 2011 WASSCE recorded mass failure as only 31 per cent made five credits in English Language and Mathematics. This situation has prompted government to create various education committees aimed at finding lasting solutions to the dismal performances of students.

Since there are no shortcuts to success, it then behooves on students to learn the importance of studying, not only to pass their exams but to improve intellectually.

Vanguard Learning sought the opinions of experts on how to put an end to the dismal performances by students.
Dr. Innocent Igwilo of the Dept. of Applied Biochemistry, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, said students are no more interested in reading and depend so much on examination malpractice.

“The not well paid teachers have abandoned the classrooms for other activities irrelevant to academic pursuit. The parents have abandoned their function as custodians of sound education and moral character. They encourage their wards in examination malpractice by providing the money and participating directly in the abominable act.”

For Prof. Louis Egwari, Head of the Department of Biological Sciences, and Deputy Dean, School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Covenant University, Ota, the major reason for the mass failure in exams is that the mindset of the Nigerian youth has been diverted to sports and entertainment, especially with the advent of social networking sites.

“We are asking the children to forget about education and take the short-cut to stardom, fame and wealth. Therefore, no matter how good the teachers are, or how well equipped the schools are, as long as the mindset of the youths has been diverted to other areas apart from education, nothing can be achieved. We will continue to have mass failure in exams.