The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, and the Head of National Office of the West African Examination Council (WAEC), are to appear before the Senate to identify and address the causes of the recurring mass failure in WAEC exams.
The Committee on Education (Basic and Secondary) has been directed to submit a comprehensive report to the Senate within one month.
This followed a motion sponsored by lawmaker representing Katsina North, Senator Umar Kurfi, during plenary on Wednesday.
According to him, “There have been mass failures recorded in WAEC examination results in the country since 2009 and this is embarrassing to the nation and prejudicial to the interest of Nigerian secondary school students and parents.”
He further noted that the WAEC failure rates continue to “increase each year as evidence of failure of measures taken, if any, by the education authorities over the years,” indicating the downward spiral over the years.
He said: “In both 2009 and 2010 WAEC, only 25.99 and 24.94 percent, respectively, passed with 5 credits including Mathematics and English, while the remaining others constituting 70% failed, in 2011 May/June WAEC, only 86,612 out of 1,540,250 candidates that participated in the examinations got credits in Mathematics and English Language;
“In 2012 May/June WAEC, only 649,159 out of 1,672,224 candidates that wrote the examinations which represents just 38.81 percent got 5 credits and above including in the core subjects of Mathematics and English language, in 2013 WAEC, only 29.17 percent candidates actually passed the Nov/Dec WAEC examinations while 70 percent failed;
“In both 2017 and 2018 recent January / February private examinations, only 26.01 percent and 17.13 percent candidates have passed with 5 credits including Mathematics and English language, respectively, while the remaining over 70 percent candidates have failed.”
He expressed regret that the outlook for the future of Nigeria may continue to be bleak if urgent action is not taken to address the current mess facing the education sector.