Yobe state commissioner for education, Alhaji Mohammed Lamin, has described as unacceptable the recent 38 per cent pass rate of students from the state in the national examinations. He said this while taking over the affairs of the ministry of education in Damaturu, the state capital, and urged the teachers to improve their students' performance.
As I detailed in this post, students from Yobe state have to score 20 and 27, out of 200, for males and females respectively, in order to 'pass' the national examinations. What this means in real terms is that a total of 38 percent of students from Yobe state scored above 20 (males) and 27 (females). Students from Anambra state have to score 131 to be deemed to have passed the same examination, the highest cut-off scores of all Nigeria's 36 states. Females from Zamfara state, the first (northern) state to introduce sharia law in Nigeria, need to score just 2. Yobe state is one of three states where the Boko Haram carnage is at its worst and it was here that at least 59 teenage boys were slaughtered by the terrorists as they slept in their dormitories.
I have always talked about the reluctance, even deliberate refusal, of Nigeria's mainly muslim northern states, a number of which are under sharia law, to invest in education. They would rather spend money in sending pilgrims to Mecca, and paying marabouts and clerics to pray for the state. It will not be a surprise to learn that Mr Lamin's children are in schools abroad or, at worst, some expensive private university in Nigeria.
I do not think that Mr Lamin has a grasp of the enormity of the work he has to do if he is simply aiming to get at least 50 per cent of the students in his state who sit for the national examinations to score above 20 for males, and 27 for females. What a pity!
As I detailed in this post, students from Yobe state have to score 20 and 27, out of 200, for males and females respectively, in order to 'pass' the national examinations. What this means in real terms is that a total of 38 percent of students from Yobe state scored above 20 (males) and 27 (females). Students from Anambra state have to score 131 to be deemed to have passed the same examination, the highest cut-off scores of all Nigeria's 36 states. Females from Zamfara state, the first (northern) state to introduce sharia law in Nigeria, need to score just 2. Yobe state is one of three states where the Boko Haram carnage is at its worst and it was here that at least 59 teenage boys were slaughtered by the terrorists as they slept in their dormitories.
I have always talked about the reluctance, even deliberate refusal, of Nigeria's mainly muslim northern states, a number of which are under sharia law, to invest in education. They would rather spend money in sending pilgrims to Mecca, and paying marabouts and clerics to pray for the state. It will not be a surprise to learn that Mr Lamin's children are in schools abroad or, at worst, some expensive private university in Nigeria.
I do not think that Mr Lamin has a grasp of the enormity of the work he has to do if he is simply aiming to get at least 50 per cent of the students in his state who sit for the national examinations to score above 20 for males, and 27 for females. What a pity!
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