It has been found that fear and anxiety are the major factors hindering candidates from excelling in external examinations especially in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and the National Examination Council (NECO) among others.
According to the former President, National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools, Dr. Saidu Mijinyawa, in an interview with the punch newspaper, “The country is consecutively hostage with high failure rate in WASSCE and NECO because of fear/anxiety before and during learning and exam periods due to overblown importance of mathematics and English over other subjects or even above the existence of the person. This is due to the fact that those who fail any of them are denied access to further their tertiary education in the name and on the account that they have no credits in English and mathematics.”
Also, Speaking on factors bedevilling Nigeria’s education sector, the UNESCO Chairman, Open Distance Learning, University of South Africa, Prof. Dele Braimoh, at a recent workshop in Lagos said “the emphasis placed on both subjects was a deliberate act by both exam bodies…the emphasis on the two subjects has made the exam bodies and authorities use that as a means of earning their living from desperate candidates or parents who are left with no other option than to annually return to them for another registration. If it is not what they are doing, why would a huge percentage of candidates fail mathematics this year and all candidates pass English, then next year, all candidates will fail English and pass mathematics? Why?”
The Professor further said “too much emphasis on paper qualification affects the reasoning of candidates…I think we have placed too much emphasis on paper qualification. These candidates are told that if they don’t make all their papers, they would not enter the university. Now, it’s either they study, cram or cheat. And just a few of them actually study. A large percentage of them just want to cheat their way through these external exams and get into the university. Their focus is on making their complete papers.”
For the education sector to be revived, Braimoh said those in power must begin to see education as the key to achieving social-economic development, “The education sector is what it is because the Federal Government has commercialised education… The government is not putting things right. ..this sector should be seen as an area of great concern. But it’s hard for those in power to think in this line when they have their children abroad…”
Cosmos Obiozele, who wrote WASSCE last year, said his disinterest in Mathematics had triggered his failure. “I’ve never liked mathematics. Even when the exam was approaching, I had no strong interest to study. I did not put in much effort like I did for other subjects, because I knew I would fail it. May be if my teachers had helped me work on my fear for Mathematics, I would have done much better.”
