The West African Examination Council (WAEC) has affirmed that there is improvement in the performance of secondary school students in Osun State in West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE).
Answering questions from journalists at a press conference addressed by the Commissioner for Education in the state, Mr Kola Omotunde-Young on Thursday, the Osun Branch Controller of WAEC, Dr Mrs C.O. Akintunde, confirmed that there is improvement in the performance of the students in WASSCE between 2011 and 2017.
Akintunde who read out the percentage of increment in the performance of the Osun students in WASSCE said: “In 2011, the performance of the students was 21.90 percent, it was 22.24 percent in 2012, it dropped to 20.54 in 2013.
“The students’ performance later dropped to 18.55 in 2014, but in 2015 it rose to 19.49 per cent. However, the students’ performance increased to 45.47 per cent in 2016 and 44.59 in 2017.”
The WAEC data corroborated the government’s position that there has been remarkable improvement in the standard of education in the state since the advent of Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s government.
Speaking at the press conference, Omotunde-Young stated that the highest performance of Osun students in WASSCE before Aregbesola took the mantle of leadership in the state was 15 per cent in 2010, stating that the state had got as low as 6 per cent performance of students in 2007.
According to the ‘State of Osun Students Performance in WASSCE’ report collected from WAEC and presented to journalists by Omotunde-Young, the performance of Osun students was 10.95 per cent in 2006, 6.86 per cent in 2007, 10.11 per cent in 2008, 13.98 per cent in 2009 and 15.68 per cent in 2010.
Omotunde-Young said: As at November, 2010 when Aregbesola retrieved his mandate to govern the state of Osun, the situation in the Education Sector of Osun was marked with poor, dysfunctional, appalling, learning and teaching infrastructure across the State, non availability of adequate instructional materials, low morale of teachers, roughly dressed and malnourished pupils, poor monitoring and evaluation, low quality and dysfunctional Basic and Senior Secondary Education.
“All of these were crowned with very poor performance of students in internal and external examinations.
“To ensure the truth is told and records are straightened for all to know, so that the public will no longer be misled by the shameless, who have no inhibitionsin deliberately spreading falsehood, the Ministry of Education applied to WAEC officially furnish us with performance results from 2006 to 2017 in WASSCE.
“The results, official from WAEC, show that the best performance by students in Osun, for those with five credits including English and Mathematics,in the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE), in the five years before Aregbesola was 15.68 %.
“With the focused, deliberate and purposeful intervention of the government led by Aregbesola in the education sector the state has achieved 284% improvement in the performance of students in same examinations from 15.68% in 2010 to 44.47% in 2017 examinations.
“Not good enough yet, but it is a pointer to a better future based on the foundation laid by Aregbesola which should be allowed to germinate to fruition with continuity, by those who share his vision.
According to Omotunde-Young, the vision of Aregbeola’s government is to make public schools, ‘’world class schools’’ that produce confident, matriculate-able students who are first class scholars, cultural icons and models of good character, innovation and competence – the true Omoluabi.
Packaged by Rahman Salami
