A university lecturer, Prof. Jack Aigbodioh, has attributed the mass failure of candidates in West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) and other external examinations to poor funding of schools.
The professor of Philosophy at the Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma in Edo made his views known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ekpoma.
He also blamed the lack of facilities, in-conducive learning environment and unqualified teachers in public schools in the country as largely responsible for the poor results by the candidates in public examinations.
According to Aigbodioh, who is also the Director of General Studies of the university, government funding of secondary education is not commensurate with the population of children in school.
“I am personally not surprise that the students continue to suffer the way they are going. We are not taking education seriously in this country.
“Explosion of child population in this country is not matched with adequate financial and facility support.
“If we are to get things right, government must first of all carry out proper population census of children in school and allocate appropriate resources accordingly.
“The next in line is to ensure teachers recruited to teach in primary and in the secondary schools, especially public schools are qualified to do so.
“As government must work to improve learning and teaching facilities in these schools, they must also ensure proper remuneration of the teachers.
“I stress on remuneration because when poorly paid, these teachers, to survive, engage themselves in something else to augment what they are been paid.
“By so doing, when this happens, possibility of giving their best is out of the question,” he said.
Aigbodioh also said that “if corruption persists with the way it is going and we continue to spend money on irrelevant things, I do not see hope for the Nigeria child.” (NAN)
