IS THE 2021JAMB MASS FAILURE REALLY UNEXPECTED?
By Auwal Gombe
I have come across many perspectives following the mass failure of young persons at the recently concluded Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), 2021, organised by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
But the bottom line is: THERE CAN’T BE QUALITY EDUCATION IN A BADLY ORGANISED SOCIETY.
For many years, parents whose children are passing out through many MIRACLE CENTRES (that’s what most of our secondary schools have become).
For such parents WAEC and NECO miracle centres make them believe that their wards are actually passing those exams out of their own efforts.
That’s not true: schools are helping Nigeria develop a cheating industry where every student is helped to pass the ordinary O-level exam.
The mass failure at the JAMB exams only suggests to me that (maybe) something new is happening in JAMB; because the JAMB exams too, has been a part of this cheating industry.
Atleast, in most parts of this country. Probably the current Registrar is blocking the leakages and tightening the bolts in the entire structure of the JAMB cheating industry.
Let it be known that most results Nigerian schools churn out are not true reflection of students’ performances. Of course, there are still a few honest schools around.
The reasons are not far-fetched. Majority of public schools are completely down-they lack the infrastructure required of schools, they lack quality teachers, they experience truancy of both teachers and students/pupils, they are not well financed. Most private schools (except a few) are scam- some are not up to standard, some are part of the cheating industry.
Tertiary institutions are a caricature of what they used to be. There are too many of them compared to the amount of teachers and staff required to man them. Colleges of Education, Polytechnics, and Universities are now receiving very poor academic staff in terms of quality. Some of them are as bad as the students they are expected to teach. Worse, these institutions are mere buildings. They lack the educational infrastructure required in standard tertiary institutions.
In our streets we see the glaring evidence of poor education in this country. People who completed BASIC education, but cannot read or write. Graduates of tertiary institutions that are not employable; who resort to crime due to poor education. Only a few (very few) percentage of graduates of tertiary institutions who are intellectually groomed will resort to crime. Their sound education simply won’t allow that.
Finally, let it also be known, that if exams are conducted in an ethically defined manner, and marked according to standard marking schemes, across all educational institutions in Nigeria, we will have something bigger than mass failure. It will be a tsunami of failure.
Sincerity requires that we revisit the entire educational system in Nigeria. We need to define our priorities. Like; do we need everyone to hold a certificate, or we would rather have something less than the whole holding quality certificates? Do we need all these schools although we cannot manage all of them? Where is the budgeted funding for education going? Are we putting enough in our schools?
IF WE WANT TO BE HONEST ABOUT THIS COUNTRY, WE MUST BE HONEST ABOUT ITS EDUCATION.
Auwal Gombe, writes from Gombe State, Nigeria.
Indeed this is remarkable thinking
More ink to your pen sir.
Great analysis!
How do you convince a government who aims at destroying the future leaders right before they ripe to fix her educational sector, I mean how?
The Nigerian state is a choice none of us made, yet we couldn’t escape the consequence.