This may be a cry over spilt milk, but at least it will help to register the dismay of parents and guardians of the students concerned to the appropriate authorities. The unprecedented failure recorded in 2019/2020 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in Bauchi State is heartbreaking. About 8,553 candidates have failed the exam. This shows an inverse relationship to the tremendous effort by the education ministry in rejuvenating the state’s education sector.
With the introduction of the seemingly prudent initiatives and brand new policies, Bauchi people expected improvement, not retrogression.
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Unfortunately, this BECE result is proof that some of the ministry’s initiatives are not yielding fruit. The State Ministry of Education had declared that those who failed in the BECE would have to resit next year. This decision may sound reasonable but has a serious implication on the young students. Some of them may not be able to re-sit either due to financial constraints or complete loss of interest.
Hypothetically, more than 50 per cent of such students may likely drop out of school, compounding the outrageous number of the state’s out-of-school children recorded as 4.1 million – the highest in the country. Also, students that dropped out may resort to heinous acts such as drug abuse.
It is safe to say the social consequences outweigh the envisaged benefit of this abrupt policy. Therefore, the ministry should consider another policy that is result driven rather than inflating the already disgusting number of out-of-school children in the state. This is possible only by convening a stakeholders forum to generate ideas to manage the situation.
I will recommend the re-introduction of demotion/repeat at all levels of our primary, junior secondary and senior secondary schools not only at exit classes. You cannot keep promoting poor students to the next class and expect everyone to perform well during certificate examinations at exit classes.
The earlier the ministry changes this tactic the better for the state. Exit class should not be the starting point of measurement and evaluation. The way to go is a continuous assessment from primary 1 to 6, JSS I to JSS III, and SS I to SS III with the intense implementation of promotion and demotion.
The Ministry of Education should set up a monitoring committee with the responsibility of paying unexpected visits to schools across the state to assess teachers’ performances. And of course, this should be after their welfare is fully taken care of.
Mallam Musbahu Magayaki, Sabon Fegi, Azare
