By: Jankey Touray
Back in 2018 several activists and academics had called for immediate reform of the education sector when a similar release of the WASSCE result was out, in which the then Minister PS Jallow defended a decrease in failure percentage from 21.7% in 2017 to 14.9% in 2018. The last year’s 2021 overall pass in five subjects, including English and Math statistics results for the West African Examination Council (WAEC/WASSCE), was 80.1% compared to this year’s 2022, the overall pass of 76%.
Statistically, the overall performance of candidates decreases by 4.1% which has caused chaos among students, parents, and teachers.
Haddy Touray, a 2022 WASSCE candidate of St Peter’s Technical Junior and Senior Secondary School, said it is disheartening to see a released statement of their overall performance so poor without them receiving their results yet.
“I do not trust that release because is exactly 2018’s statement without a stamp, I am still hopeful that we did well because our efforts of sleepless nights of studies cannot be compromised overnight by a statement that is not factual to me. I can only trust it when I go for our results on Monday,” Touray stressed.
She said if the release is true then it should not be pinned on the pupils, being that they have tried their best despite the obstacles they faced since 2020 on the outbreak of the pandemic in which they have not completed their syllabuses, adding that thanks to their private studies they were able to cover some of their lessons.
However, Ousman Jammeh, a teacher in the province, said the root cause is the mass promotion from primary schools to junior and senior schools respectively, saying how do you promote someone who cannot pass a single subject in trials to go and sit to WASSCE.
“Inasmuch as I blame the President which I will not change, it’s easy to curb this issue. Every school knows the students who can do better in exams, so registering huge numbers because of School Improvement Grades (SIG). Ministry would have simply told all schools to register candidates that are ready for the exam,” Mr Jammeh said.
Jammeh lamented that in other to please the donors, let there be more vocational training centres for the underperforming students. He further said that any pupil that cannot have a minimum credit in trials should not sit to WASSCE and urges the ministry of education to stop pleasing its donor and the Head of State.
Moreover, Ramou Trawally, a parent, said the drop in performance in schools is due to pupils and should not be blamed on the government or the ministry.
“Every female learner has a phone and long human hair, high heels in their bags that they use after or during school and their parents are not doing anything about it, especially the male pupils that have their gangs, smoking weeds and loitering around without being in schools to a proper lesson and at homes mother, father, sister, brother, and grandparents are on their phones no one talks to any and you expect them to pass, hell no,” Ramou stressed.
She said parents should monitor their children on all occasions to know their performance hence the outcome result is important to them and that they want their children to come out the best.
The WASSCE results are yet to be officially out to students to know their faith.
