Boko Haram and poor performance in WAEC, NECO exams, by Audu Alhaji Kyari

Schools in Borno and Yobe States were forced to close for a long period following aggressive attacks on educational institutions by the Boko Haram. This led to the murder of innocent students at the Federal Government College, Buni Yadi; College of Agriculture, Gujba; and Government Secondary School, Damaturu.
It was a situation that injected fear into the minds of many parents and created psychological trauma among the students. This unfortunate circumstance forced some parents, particularly the well to do, to transfer their children from the state to other states like Bauchi, Jigawa, Kano and Kaduna, while the less privileged had no alternative than to watch their children playing video games and watching movies at home, a situation that if unchecked will not augur well for the educational and socio-economic development of the two states of Borno and Yobe, which are already tagged as educationally disadvantaged.
The decision to close down schools for fear of Boko Haram attacks is indeed a welcome development to the terrorists because their motive is to completely jeopardize western education in Northern Nigeria.
Considering the fact that children of the less privileged persons are the majority in any society, the tendency is that these majority group that were denied access to education, which is one of the fundamental human rights of every Nigerian child, may eventually constitute a threat to the peace of the states in the long run. Boko haram is an organization that has intelligent people just like the government has its technocrats. As such, they are always planning and looking inwards into how they will defeat whatever plan the government is initiating and the closure of schools is a good omen to them because it paves the way for their catch them young strategy of initiating children into their heinous acts.
Lack of concentration by students due the trauma they went through has led to dismal performance in their West African Examination Council and National Examination Council examinations in Borno and Yobe States as indicated by statistics.
Statistics by the National Office of WAEC, released in Lagos after the June/July 2013 WAEC examination, indicated that only 29.17 per cent of students who sat for the exams got five credits and above, including in English and Mathematics, with eight of the 36 states that included Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa and Yobe in the North East recording less than 10 per cent.
Below is the state by state statistics as it affects the North East geopolitical zone.
Adamawa: 8.75%
Borno: 15.24%
Bauchi: 5.28%
Gombe: 5.68%
Taraba: 15.24%
Yobe: 4.85%
The statistics also shows woeful failure by candidates from Yobe State, as only 743 of them scored five credits and above, including in English and Mathematics, which are the prerequisite for admission into university.
Results of the November/December 2013 WAEC showed a negligible improvement upon what was recorded in 2012 as only 72,522 out of the 241,161 candidates who sat for the exams scored five credits and above, including in English and Mathematics. nationwide. And the situation has repeated itsself in the 2015 WAEC and 2016 Joint Admission and Matriculation Board examinations.
. Kyari is a 400 level student of Mass communication, University of Maiduguri.