PRESS STATEMENT: REFLECTING ON THE 2015 WAEC MAY/JUNE RESULT AND THE NEED FOR STATE OF EMERGENCY ON EDUCATION IN EACH OF THE NORTHEASTERN STATES

One of the ways we can assess the commitment of the state governments in developing and promoting the state of education in their states is the performance of their indigenes in different National and Regional examinations. If this stands to be a reliable yardstick, then we can loudly say states in the Northeast need to be more committed so that we can begin to see appreciable performance of the indigenes of their states in those examinations.  For example, in the 2015 WAEC May/June result released in the first quarter of this year, Yobe State came last with only 646 (4.37%) candidates obtaining five credits and above including English and Mathematics out of the fourteen thousand, seven hundred and eight-four students, comprising 10, 807 males and 3,977 females, sat for the examination in the state. Apart from the disheartening performance of Yobe state, none of the Northeast states made it to the best 20 performing states in the ranking. This came at a time when Abia state (1st in the ranking) scored 63.94 per cent with 33, 762 of its 52, 801 candidates obtaining five credits and above including English and Mathematics.

Even with this poor performance of states in the Northeast, we can still commend states like Taraba (21st in the ranking) and Borno (25th in the ranking), specially for Borno State that has been bearing brunt of the insurgency more than any other state in the region. Out of the 21,695 that sat for the examination from Borno, 5,347 got five credits and above, including English and Mathematics. For States like Bauchi (31st in the ranking) and Gombe (34th in the ranking) the performance left us with a huge surprise given that these two states are less hit by insurgency but performing so poorly.

 

It is in view of the above situation that we, the undersigned members of the Northeast Education and Social Accountability Cluster wish to renew our call for state of emergency in the education sector of the states in the Northeast. We also urge that this should go beyond just mere declaration, requiring the states to come up with bold initiatives and corresponding funding and the deployment of transparent and accountable mechanisms for the utilization of the funds for the sector.    

 

While making this call, we as CSOs remain committed to continue exploring various strategies for promoting social accountability in the education sector in the Northeast so that resources deployed to the sector could deliver the desired results.

 

Signed:

  1. Kabiru Sa`idu Dakata, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), Kano. 08064891110
  2. Mohammed G. Wuyo, Borno Coalition for Democracy and Progress (BOCODEP), Borno. 08063309633
  3. Enoch Raymond, Centre for Environmental Education and Development (CEED), Taraba. 07065550217
  4. Rebecca Hassan, Association of People Living with Disability, Gombe. 08036582745
  5. Aishatu Margima, Women and Youth Empowerment for Advancement and Health Initiative (WYEAHI), Adamawa. 08025225194
  6. Isah Garba, Bauchi Coalition for Improvement of Public Expenditure Management (BACIPEM), Bauchi. 08064867312
  7. Halimatu Laminu, Network of Civil Society Organizations, Yobe. 08025561637
  8. Dauda Mohammad, Northeast Youth Initiative Forum(NEYIF),  Yobe. 08035548664
  9. Asma`u Joda, Centre for Women and Adolescent Empowerment, Adamawa. 08032917070
  10. Ibrahim Yusuf, Society and the Future, Gombe. 08061153231