By Sola Isola
So without mincing words, anyone who thinks government alone should be blamed for the WAEC result of Osun students needs to be taken to a rehab.
If its for the sake of politics alone, I understand that it can be played while you hang your common sense but then the Yoruba people says that “we should not meet stupidity where we are supposed to meet wisdom”, whatever that means to you, so be it.
That WAEC result includes that of the private schools for which the government doesn’t really take responsibility for except of course they all run the same syllabus.
I understand the need to recruit teachers, the need to upgrade our libraries and laboratories, the need to train and retrain our teachers, but is that all that is needed to pass examinations.
What about the mindset of those small boys with dreadlocks, using cars and phone that their teachers can not afford to buy and impregnating corp members and their fellow students?
What about the understanding of the small girls with big bwess and acidic *ss that looks like an abandoned Nokia battery, who are satisfied with one dullard boyfriend that can afford either Osogbo mushroom pizza or perhaps those Sharwarma that looks like it is mixed with Garri.
You have all forgotten that we have often told them that ‘Education is a scam’, you have forgotten that Portable, that character that only God can judge has been asking them “school tiwo lo, ki lo fi da?”
You all think those are mere sayings? These things have effects, what we hear and see shapes our thinking which ultimately forms our mindset.
So its interesting that the same people who fight me on Facebook when I advocate for people to speak simple and correct English are sad that students failed English in WAEC, they are forgotten that we have agreed that English is not our language.
How will they pass when Good Morning has been replaced with ‘GM’, What about you has been replaced with ‘WBU’, even Happy Birthday is now ‘massive addy to you’. You need to speak to the teachers that mark English in WAEC to understand what I am talking about.
Now those students are your brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews, what role did you play to make them understand the need to get basic education which of course in our clime is measured by WAEC result not also forgetting that no one in Nigeria can school abroad without passing WAEC except you want to go write another exam which will be a foreign test.
We all have Old students association, what do you do when you have meetings, drink beer and dance “shedi balala”?
I was once the Secretary of the Old student association of my school and people don’t attend our meetings because they said it is not ‘lively’, meanwhile what will discuss often in that group is how we can be of help to the school and the students. That doesn’t attract them at all.
I am certain some of their brothers and sisters would have failed WAEC now and they blame would have been either on the school or the government, it is an anomaly.
Yes, government has a huge role to play in revamping the education system but what I am saying it government alone can not do it in maybe four years or at best eight years, the things we say to those students also matters.
What are we doing about it? What are you going to do about it?
Should we talk about agencies that get funds from foreign donors to fight the dwindling education system in Nigeria and end up doing nothing with the money other than buying new cars, offices and houses for themselves.
They are on another side of the coin but they will also want to blame the government because the government is the fall guy.
If we all take a closer look at the system, we will see a part we can play in helping to revamp it.
