A non-governmental organisation, the Education Rights Campaign, has described the result of this year’s May/June West African Senior School Certificate Examination as “not only poor but also an absolute disaster”.
The group, however, blamed the poor outing on government’s underfunding and poor policy roadmap for the education sector.
The ERC stated this while reviewing 2014 WASSCE results released by the West African Examinations Council on Monday.
The Head, WAEC National Office in Lagos, Mr. Charles Eguridu, had while announcing the results, said that only 529,425 of the 1, 692, 435 candidates, who sat the examination, obtained credits in five subjects and above, including English Language and Mathematics
But, appraising the result, the ERC, in a statement, said “the disastrous result is a reflection of the failure of the anti-poor and capitalist neo-liberal policies of education underfunding and commercialisation by the government.”
The group’s National Coordinator, Hassan Taiwo, and Secretary, Michael Ogundele, signed the statement obtained by our correspondent on Thursday.
The ERC said, “Government at all levels has pursued a relentless policy of starving public education of funds, such that public secondary and primary schools across the country have become devastated with little or no teaching infrastructures, such that no useful learning is taking place.
“Where funds are released through budgetary allocations, the Universal Basic Education schemes and others, they are routinely siphoned and mismanaged by politicians, officials of the Education Ministry and the UBE contractors, as well as the appointed heads of schools. The cumulative result of all this is the recurrent mass failure that we are experiencing in external examinations as well as the decline in the quality and standard of education generally.
“We place the blame for this failure on the shoulders of President Goodluck Jonathan and the state governors, whose anti-poor education policies are mortgaging the future of the nation’s youth.
“If President Jonathan-led government is any serious, this recurrent mass failure should serve as a wakeup call to inject more public funds, starting with the UNESCO recommendation of at least 26 per cent of annual budget, into rehabilitating public schools and providing all the required facilities and infrastructures required in a 21st century education sector.”
The ERC, which canvassed the involvement of all stakeholders in management of schools, also advised the Federal Government to fund properly the nation’s colleges of education.
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