WAEC Lauds Osun Govt. On Students’ Performance

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 It was no doubt good news to the stakeholders in the education sector, the supporters and loyalists of the Osun State governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as one of the oldest examination bodies in the country, the West African Examination Council (WAEC) has given a pass mark to the administration and hailed the governor for recording achievements in the education sector.

WAEC also submitted that there has been an improvement in the performance of secondary school students in Osun State in the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE). Speaking with journalists at a press conference addressed by the Commissioner for Education, Mr Kola Omotunde-Young on Thursday, the WAEC Branch Controller, Osun State, Dr (Mrs) C.O. Akintunde, asserted that an improvement has been recorded in the performance of the students in WASSCE between 2011 and 2017.  ‘In 2011, the performance of the students was 21.90 percent, it was 22.24 percent in 2012, and it dropped to 20.54 in 2013. It later dropped to 18.55 in 2014 but rose to 19.49 per cent in 2015

. It, however, increased to 45.47 per cent in 2016 and 44.59 in 2017’, she said. The data released by the examination body, according to the commissioner is in tandem with the position maintained by the state government that there has been remarkable improvement in the standard of education in the state since the advent of the Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s administration. Omotunde-Young who stated that the highest performance of Osun students in WASSCE before Aregbesola took over as governor was 15 per cent in 2010, stating that the state had even had instances of getting as low as 6 per cent performance of students in 2007, the report of Osun State Students Performance in WASSCE sourced from WAEC showed that 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 also noted that as at November, 2010 when Aregbesola came on board, the situation in the Education Sector of the state 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 that records are straightened for all to know, the Ministry of Education applied to WAEC to formally furnish us with the performance results of the students from 2006 to 2017.

The results showed that the best performance by the students in Osun State, 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. Not good enough yet, but it is a pointer to a better future based on the foundations laid by Aregbesola which should be allowed to germinate to fruition through continuity agenda’, he said. The vision of the Aregbeola’s administration is, according to Omotunde-Young, to make the public schools, the ’world class schools’ which will produce confident students that are first class scholars, cultural icons and models of good character, innovation and competence which are the core values of a true Omoluabi.