Anxiety in Oyo schools over poor WASSCE results
Khalid ABRAHAM
News reaching ogbomosoinsightonline.com has revealed that anxiety has engulfed public secondary schools’ authorities in Oyo state over poor 2023 West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results released Wednesday by the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC).
It is learnt students in most public schools recorded woeful performance in most of their subjects derogatorily termed F9 parallel, a development said to have angered the students who are allegedly threatening fire and brimstone against their teachers.
The alleged poor results in the state is however worrying if juxtaposed against the statistics released by the exam body.
According to the statistics made available by Head of the Nigeria Office (HNO) of WAEC, Patrick Areghan, a total of 1,287,920 candidates, or 79.81% of the 1,613,733 candidates who passed the exam, obtained credits or more in a minimum of five (5) subjects, including English language and mathematics.
“When compared to the 76.36% pass rate in 2022, this shows improvement in the results of more than 5%,” Areghan disclosed.
Meanwhile the sordid results in Oyo state amid a generally good result leaves one in disillusionment.
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This upset the students who first impulse in most schools was to vent vengeance on their tutors and principals whom “they naively put the blame on.”
“Yes, many schools reported their students became riled after they checked their WASSCE results online and discovered they posted poor results,” a school principal in Ogbomoso who however spoke on conditions of anonymity told ogbomosoinsightonline.com Thursday.
“They threatened to cause mayhem but we were able to control the situation,” he added.
A teacher who similarly spoke with ogbomosoinsightonline.com also on condition of anonymity confirmed the situation averring however that the students deserved to take the largest share of the blame.
“If truth be told the students were the major cause of their failure. Students don’t believe in reading and studying any more. Their addiction to mobile phones and other distractions is excessive.
“Even with exams around the corner they are never driven by any urge or urgency to study. As important as WAEC exam is you see them still playing hours to a paper even two minutes before they enter exam hall they don’t feel concerned.
“You see them giggling, carefree, punching phones, playing football. You won’t see them engrossed in reading for last minute grasps as we did during our time. It was as if they believed a miracle would happen. They believed they would access answers on phone.
“However they were done in because of the more stringent environment exams were written this year. Schools were extra vigilant because of the stern warning and threat from WAEC and the state government.
“Do you know how many teachers and principals were sanctioned because of alleged examination malpractices last year? Schools sat up this year to strictly monitor the exam but sadly the students didn’t sit up,” the teacher said.
In the meantime it appears the students have calmed down and moved on.
“Hope this will serve as a good lesson to the next generation of students and so they will learn to read with more seriousness especially when exams approach. Measures should also be evolved that will force and drive the passion of students to read, by both government and schools authorities,” another teacher stated.
