The standard of education in the West African sub-region is high and constantly improving, the Registrar of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Iyi Uwadiae, has said.
Uwadiae said at the News Agency of Nigeria Forum in Lagos that it is educational achievement by students that is declining.
According to him, the standard of education in the five Anglophone countries – Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Gambia – “have rather moved up’’.
“When you get there now, you will be wondering that some of those things that are taught at even basic secondary level, we were taught when we were in form four, form five in secondary school, but today they are thought at basic secondary level.
“In effect to me, by my own assessment, the standard of education has not fallen. But we have often made a mistake of using the mirror; WAEC is a mirror.
“So, WAEC has tested and is reporting on the standard as contained in the curriculum against the performance, the achievements of the candidates.
“But if we now say achievements versus what we do today; no! The thing has nosedived.
“Achievements of candidates, no, it is nothing to write home about, I will say, taking it from the WAEC results.
“But in terms of standard, the standard is there, because if the standard is not high, every person will be passing, will be having `A’s’’.
Uwadiae pointed out that the standard of examinations conducted by WAEC was benchmarked on the standard of teaching syllabuses being used in schools, which are more standard than those used in earlier years.
On what can be done to reverse the situation, he said experts in education have made several suggestions, but that the problem is multi-phased.
“We have the students who are not learning, we have students who spend more times on internet; they are not learning.
“We have the teachers who say they are not encouraged; so they just go there and garbage in and garbage out. We also have a group of teachers…because a vicious circle is already in place.
“People, who did not achieve well, went to university. In the university, they also did some `calarbully’ kind of things, they passed out with two-two, two-one, even first class, but nothing in the head.
“And he is now put in a class to teach our children.
“You don’t give what you don’t have; that is the vicious circle I’m saying; apart from the students themselves that are not ready to learn.
