After many years of witnessing a downward trend in student
performance, the West African Examination Certificate (WAEC)
results have hit an all time low, as 70% of candidates failed in
the May/June edition this year. Many saw it coming considering the dwindling allocation of resources
to education in the country and the lack of quality teachers, but the
most important contributing factor has been the lackadaisical attitude
of the students.
It's not been so long since our time in secondary school but there's
been a massive drastic drop in the quest for knowledge. During our
time, we wanted to be good, studied for long hours and even overnight
and competed against ourselves. Education was an active, big part and
source of happiness in our lives but nowadays, take study out of a
students life and he/she will be happy. They like it easy and fun.
Success doesn't just fall from heaven like our pastors want us to
believe, it's a result of hard work and proper preparation because you
can't give what you don't have. Success is deliberate and so is failure.
"There is no better future than through pen and paper," were my
grandmothers last words to me. For a woman who never saw the four
walls of formal education and that I never saw her alive after hearing
those meant I had heard from God himself and never took my books
for granted.
Even the bible says "study to show thyself approved", but what do we
see these days? Students are no more studying, they don't. They are
not driven or motivated by academic success anymore. Words such as
hard work, determination, perseverance, goals and all that are
constantly losing value. The reality is that boys and girls are more
conversant with Skelewu, Kukere, Dorobucci, Ukwu, Gobe and a host of
other words that hardly have any meaningful contribution to their
future. Many of them don't know anything other than what's on TV. If
Don Jazzy, Davido and the likes haven't sung it, they won't know it.
Social networks such as Facebook and 2go have not helped matters,
as they have become a hub for the waste of valuable study time. The
whole day is spent "keeping up with the Kardashians", chatting, and all
sorts of rubbish.
Students are busy browsing "cheats" or "expo" for WAEC exams and
even after the results are out, one of the most searched topics on
Google is "how to check WAEC result without scratch card", why would
you want to do that? Typical Nigerian attitude of cutting corners and it
went horribly wrong this time. WAEC's board have argued that the
abysmal performance is as a result of a clamp down on "miracle
centres" and other exam malpractices, suggesting it has always been
this way, but I bet not this bad.
I know there's a lot for the government, parents, and teachers to do but
without commensurate effort from the students, there can't be a fix for
this. There needs to be a change of priority and attitude in secondary
students of this generation, they need to understand that there's no
way around academic excellence, hardly. Hard work and merit need to
exalted and put in its rightful place for all to see and emulate.
Until these students learn to take responsibility, we'll be talking about
this or even worse for a long long time.
Usha Anenga (usha.com.ng and @UAnenga) is a concerned Nigerian.
performance, the West African Examination Certificate (WAEC)
results have hit an all time low, as 70% of candidates failed in
the May/June edition this year. Many saw it coming considering the dwindling allocation of resources
to education in the country and the lack of quality teachers, but the
most important contributing factor has been the lackadaisical attitude
of the students.
It's not been so long since our time in secondary school but there's
been a massive drastic drop in the quest for knowledge. During our
time, we wanted to be good, studied for long hours and even overnight
and competed against ourselves. Education was an active, big part and
source of happiness in our lives but nowadays, take study out of a
students life and he/she will be happy. They like it easy and fun.
Success doesn't just fall from heaven like our pastors want us to
believe, it's a result of hard work and proper preparation because you
can't give what you don't have. Success is deliberate and so is failure.
"There is no better future than through pen and paper," were my
grandmothers last words to me. For a woman who never saw the four
walls of formal education and that I never saw her alive after hearing
those meant I had heard from God himself and never took my books
for granted.
Even the bible says "study to show thyself approved", but what do we
see these days? Students are no more studying, they don't. They are
not driven or motivated by academic success anymore. Words such as
hard work, determination, perseverance, goals and all that are
constantly losing value. The reality is that boys and girls are more
conversant with Skelewu, Kukere, Dorobucci, Ukwu, Gobe and a host of
other words that hardly have any meaningful contribution to their
future. Many of them don't know anything other than what's on TV. If
Don Jazzy, Davido and the likes haven't sung it, they won't know it.
Social networks such as Facebook and 2go have not helped matters,
as they have become a hub for the waste of valuable study time. The
whole day is spent "keeping up with the Kardashians", chatting, and all
sorts of rubbish.
Students are busy browsing "cheats" or "expo" for WAEC exams and
even after the results are out, one of the most searched topics on
Google is "how to check WAEC result without scratch card", why would
you want to do that? Typical Nigerian attitude of cutting corners and it
went horribly wrong this time. WAEC's board have argued that the
abysmal performance is as a result of a clamp down on "miracle
centres" and other exam malpractices, suggesting it has always been
this way, but I bet not this bad.
I know there's a lot for the government, parents, and teachers to do but
without commensurate effort from the students, there can't be a fix for
this. There needs to be a change of priority and attitude in secondary
students of this generation, they need to understand that there's no
way around academic excellence, hardly. Hard work and merit need to
exalted and put in its rightful place for all to see and emulate.
Until these students learn to take responsibility, we'll be talking about
this or even worse for a long long time.
Usha Anenga (usha.com.ng and @UAnenga) is a concerned Nigerian.
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