Most SS 3 Students Are Illiterate—NECO official

Most Senior Secondary School 3 students writing the ongoing NECO examinations cannot write anything on their answer sheets without teachers’ or invigilators’ assistance, an invigilator.

The invigilator who did not want his in print in a chat with our reporter said he had been to both private and government schools for over three years now, and the manner in which examinations are conducted differs in schools.

In many private schools, he said, teachers help students by giving them photocopies of answers to the questions or dictate the answers to them while those in government schools seem helpless as some of the teachers don’t even know the answers themselves.

“In the private schools, majority of students don’t prepare for examinations because they are sure they would be assisted in the examination hall. Even in subjects like Hausa, Yoruba, IRK and CRS among others, students still depend on assistance to be able to write. The situation is different in public schools as even if the teachers want to help, they cannot because some of them cannot answer the questions”.

“In private schools, sometimes when invigilators or security personnel catch a student or teacher in an act and they are given malpractice forms to fill, the school principal or proprietor would go behind to settle some people and retrieve the form. The situation is getting worse on a yearly basis. If things go on like this, our education system will collapse in no time. So there is need for urgent intervention because we cannot afford to be graduating thousands of students who cannot get the five credits they need to get admission into higher institutions. That is why we have wrong people at the helm of affairs because the people we are graduating don’t know anything, it is really pathetic,” he added.

According to the him, the schools authorities, invigilators sent by NECO and external invigilators are all contributing factors to examination malpractice in private schools in particular as they often compromise for money while in public schools, nobody cares whether the students pass or not.