The Senate on Wednesday summoned the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, and the Head of the National Office of the West African Examination Council, Olu Adenipekun, to identify and address the causes of the recurring mass failure in the exams.
The Senate’s decision was sequel to a motion sponsored by Senator Umaru Kurfi, who expressed dissatisfaction with persistent mass failure in WAEC.
According to Kurfi, mass failures have been recorded in WAEC examination results in the country since 2009 and this is embarrassing to the nation and prejudicial to the interest of Nigerian secondary school students and parents.
He said: “In both 2009 and 2010 WAEC, only 25.99 and 24.94 per cent respectively passed with five credits, including Mathematics and English, while the remaining others, constituting 70 per cent failed.
“In 2011 May/June WAEC, only 86,612 out of 1,540,250 candidates that participated in the examinations got credits in Mathematics and English Language.
“In 2012 May/June WAEC, only 649,159 out of 1,672,224 candidates that wrote the examinations, which represents just 38.81 per cent, got five credits and above, including in the core subjects of Mathematics and English language.
“In 2013 WAEC, only 29.17 per cent candidates actually passed the Nov/Dec WAEC examinations, while 70 per cent failed.
“In both 2017 and 2018 recent January/February private examinations, only 26.01 per cent and 17.13 per cent candidates passed with five credits, including Mathematics and English language respectively, while the remaining over 70 per cent candidates have failed.”
After exhaustive debate on the bill, the Senate mandated its committee on Education (Basic and Secondary) to submit a comprehensive report to the Senate within one week.
In his remarks, the President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, said: “One of the greatest issues that we must address is increasing the value of our human resources through education and healthcare.
“This issue of the recurring failure is of great concern and we must get to the bottom of it.