“Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another” G.K. Chesterton (1874 – 1936) When the British writer and poet, G.K
Chesterton made the above statement, he did not envisage a time when standard of
education, the soul of a society, would dwindle, especially in our country, Nigeria. It is no longer news that the standard of education in Nigeria is poor.
The West African Senior School Certificate Examination
(WASSCE) result released recently has brought to the fore the deterioration of the nation’s education sector. Some
stakeholders have attributed the poor performance by students to incompetent
teachers who hold sway in primary and secondary schools across the country.
Where there is lack of the so-called teachers,corps members, who are just birds of passage are used as substitutes.
Incidentally, the corps members have little
or nothing to impart as most of them struggled academically to get through university education. The joblessness of
Nigerian graduates is also a pointer to the decline in the nation’s education. Many
graduates today are jobless because they cannot defend the certificates they carry.
This is in spite of the ‘good grades’ they recorded in school. There are many
contributory factors to this ugly
development, one of which is the admission of educational misfits into universities.
For many years, desperate for university education, some parents and guardians encouraged their children and wards to engage in examination mal-practices in
order to pass entrance examination to universities being conducted by the Joint
Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
In some cases, parents who accompany their children to examination centers, ‘settle’
invigilators and security personnel who look the other way while candidates cheat.
Reports of leakage of examination papers by
unscrupulous JAMB officials have become a routine. While JAMB makes effort every year
to check examination fraud, some candidates also device means to outsmart the examination body.
Having secured admission, these students, who would have been better off in other
fields outside education, find it difficult to cope with the rigours of university education.
The result of this has been the
production of half-baked graduates who often find it difficult to fit into the world of
university graduates.
These were the people who made do with the grades that are now popularly referred to
as ‘let-my-people-go’. By the way, most of
such graduates are today principals, head
teachers and teachers in the primary and
secondary schools across the country. This
is why Nigeria’s education sector has
continued to be on downward spiral.
Universities in the country have, more often
than not, been blamed for the sorry state of
the education sector. Those who pass the
blame argue that the universities produce
half-baked graduates who find their way into
secondary schools as teachers.
The authorities of the nation’s Ivory Towers
had in the past fought back, insisting that
the body that conducts university
matriculation examinations, JAMB, should
be held responsible. This, according to
them, is because JAMB forwards names of
students who are not teachable to them for
admission. The argument by the authorities
of universities is tenable as cases of
examination mal-practice, especially
impersonation, trail conduct of JAMB
examinations.
To check the situation, Nigerian Universities
introduced the Post-Unified Tertiary
Matriculation Examination (UTME). This is
an examination aimed at separating the
wheat from the chaff among those certified
fit for admission by JAMB. The post-UTME,
since its introduction, has generated a lot of
debate, some in favour, and some against.
No matter how this examination is
castigated, the truth is that it has helped in
rooting out the misfits who would have
ended up in bringing bad name to the
universities.
There have been cases of those who scored
as high as 250 in UTME but could not
garner the minimum 50 per cent required in
post-UTME for admission though the
questions are culled from past UTME
questions. There was also a case narrated
by a University of Ibadan lecturer who was
a member of the University’s admission
screening panel. According to her, a
candidate who filled UTME form to study
Pharmacy and scored well over 200 in the
examination could not spell Pharmacy, a
course he applied to study. Perhaps, that
candidate fell among those who hired
mercenaries to write examinations for them.
Such cases have vindicated the universities
for insisting on the post-UTME.
Some of those who oppose post-UTME have
argued that university authorities are using
it to fleece parents and guardians by
charging examination fees. Others have
concluded that university authorities are
using the examination as a cover to offer
admission the highest bidders. These
positions are like standing logic on its head.
For crying out loud, post-UTME is not
different from every other examination and,
therefore, requires logistics. As such, fees
have to be charged to take care of logistics
problems.
If education is truly the soul of a society,
and should be transmitted from one
generation to another, then there is the need
to support the initiative by Nigerian
universities.
Written by my humble friend Christian Ogbu (Department of
Communication and Language Arts, University of Ibadan)
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