Oyo State Commissioner for Education, Prof. Taoheed Adedoja, has declared a state of ”intervention emergency” in secondary education in the state following the abysmal performance of students in the 2009 external and mock examinations.
Given the performance of SSS students in the mock examination conducted by consultants, Educational Advancement Centre, he said that the time had come for a reappraisal of the situation.
The commissioner bared his mind at an interactive session tagged, ‘Collective responsibilities for improved performance in public examination,’ held at the ministry, on Thursday.
Among the stakeholders at the session were the zonal coordinator of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, Mr. Razaaq Lawal, a director of EAC, Mr. Muyiwa Bamgbose; and retired school principals drawn into the Volunteer Supervisory Scheme.
Also at the meeting were representatives of the National Examination Council, West African Examination Council, non-governmental organisations; as well as inspirational singer, Shola Allyson-Obaniyi.
The commissioner explained that the mock examination was conducted in November, 2009 to ascertain the level of preparedness of students for the May/June WASSCE.
He said that the step was taken as part of the holistic approach towards improved performance of students in this year‘s external examinations.
Adedoja said that it was on the same premise that Gov. Adebayo Alao-Akala assembled school principals at a meeting last Friday, where the school heads pledged higher level of commitment to arrest the situation.
The result of the mock examination recorded no significant improvement from the poor outing of the students that wrote the 2009 NECO and WASSCE, to which the government committed N250m.
This year, the commissioner said that the government was also preparing to commit another N280m to the payment of WASSCE fees for the 54, 374 that enrolled for the exams.
As from next year, he said only students that performed well in the mock examination would write the WASSCE free, while the parents of the others would bear the cost.
Of the 57,723 that sat for the mock exams, only 29 had credit pass in English; 1,009 had credit in Mathematics; while 1, 549 passed Yoruba, which are compulsory subjects.
None of the 12, 595 and 13, 121 that wrote Physics and Chemistry, respectively, had credit pass while none of the 16,660 students that sat for Government also had a credit pass.
The result of the 2009 WASSCE examination indicated that only 2, 617 candidates had five credit passes, including in English and Mathematics, out of the 52, 337 the state presented; while 12 per cent passed NECO.