Professor Akachi Ezeigbo from the Department of English, University of Lagos, a Chief Examiner at the 15th Mike Okonkwo National Essay Competition has faulted parents, teachers and educational managers for students’ failure, urging them to put in more effort at guiding their children to develop their own skills. She frowned at parents helping students with tasks and assignments that would give false impressions of their skills describing it as misleading.
She stated this at the 15th Mike Okonkwo Annual Lecture and presentation of gifts to winners of the Mike Okonkwo National Essay Competition held at MUSON Centre, Lagos.
As the chief examiner of the competition, she said: “The submissions for this year’s competition show a further slide down the curve of suitability.” According to her, the test is more than a test of brilliance, it is also a test of how much students have learned to follow scholarly procedures in their analysis of issues. “This is what education is virtually all about, from primary through secondary to the tertiary level,” she said.
Ezeigbo, who lamented the decline in students’ written and spoken English said: “We detected brazen collaboration among students from the same school. We suspect that they received help from their teachers. In some cases, about five to 10 students of the same school submitted verbatim entries.”
According to her, some entries show obvious cases of parents helping their children because the language use did not reflect the capacities of children of secondary school age. “In other cases, we found evidence of students hacking sections of their entries from the internet, textbooks, newspapers and other sources. Because many went to the same sites or sources, it was easy to detect this brazen form of cheating, she added.
The Professor, however, noted that the four candidates who scaled through the first stage proved their intellectual promise in the second by satisfying the criteria. Thus, Miss Patience Brown of Apapa Senior High School, Apapa who scored 68 per cent during the first stage repeated her performance again scoring 68 per cent to emerge first in the competition.
Also, Miss Precious Amarachi Nwaigwe of St. Francis Catholic Secondary School, Idimu, Lagos scored 66 per cent to emerge second even when she came fourth, scoring 60 per cent at the earlier stage.
Besides, Master Akinwande Akinboluwarin of Greater Tomorrow International School, Arigidi Akoko, Ondo State scored 63 per cent at the first stage and 65 per cent at the second to emerge third.
Closely allied to the above is the fourth candidate, Master David Oluwasoromidayo of Rashalo International Secondary School who scored 65 per cent in the first entry but dropped to 64 per cent in the second.
The close correlations in the marks scored by the students at both stages validate their efforts. Unlike previous years, the marks for this year were particularly low, with none of the students scoring 70 per cent which is the A grade.
“Students’ failure in this year’s competition further confirms the decadence in our education sector. In order for students to pass examination, many of them depend absolutely on their teachers, parents or guardians. They are not willing to do any serious had work for themselves,” she said.
Speaking in tandem, Governor Babatunde Fashola who was elated that a public school student emerged first said that it does not come as a surprise that a product of one of the public schools is the winner of this event. “This has been the case year after year and it is testament to the work of public servants; teachers, principals, vice-principals, tutors-general and all members of our community who have decided to invest in Lagos public education.
“The annual Bishop Mike Okonkwo Lecture is a very strong feature in the Lagos State calender. It is so because, for me, it is about many things; first it is about children, and that is very important. Secondly, it is about education, which is also very important. Thirdly, it comes from a well respected source, and indeed that is very important.
“As such, every year, I make an effort to be here in person, not only to come and celebrate a man who deserves to be honoured but also to see the outcome of the investment we have made on the children you have entrusted in our care in public schools do in these annual competitions.”
On his part, the Chairman of the occasion, Ambassador (Prof.) George Obiozor stressed the importance of ideas development adding that ideas rule the world.
He said, “Of all the major indices of power identified by the world’s leading philosophers, from Plato to Bertrand Russell, idea constantly emerged as number one. Ideas create events and events make history.”
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