Ibikunle Amosun was first elected as the governor of Ogun-State in 2011. On assumption of office, he decided to unify the terminal examinations being conducted by public primary and secondary schools. This was in fulfillment of his campaign promise to revive the falling standard of education in the state. The new education policy was well received by parents and teachers who felt it would help achieve a uniformity in testing students' ability. Not much thought was given to the feasibility and sustainability of this grandiose policy. Five years on, a policy that was well received when it was introduced has become a cause for concern and worry to many people in the state. Since the introduction of the unified examination in 2011, school children have never written the examination at the right time. This makes it impossible for teachers to mark the scripts on time and prepare students' results. At first, it was thought to be a teething problem that would be overcome as time went on. Rather than this happening, the challenge keeps recurring every term, proving more difficult to surmount than the previous term. I cannot remember the last time public schools students were given their results at the end of the term. They are usually asked to come for their results during the holidays or the following term. Many students also complained about the nature of the questions being asked in the examination. They claimed many of the topics on which questions are asked have never been taught in their classrooms. This then begs the questions: is there a unified syllabus that public schools teachers must adhere to? Also, do all school children in Ogun-State use the same set of textbooks? The answer to the two questions is a resounding no! Public schools in Ogun-State make use of different textbooks which explains why some topics are strange to some students. 18th July, 2016, was a day every public school student in Ogun-State eagerly looked forward to. It was the day their promotional examination was to begin. As expected, many of them had burnt the midnight candle to ensure they do well in the examination and ease their passage to the next class. Many of them woke up early and left for their various schools that Monday morning. Their high spirits and enthusiasm were later dampened when it dawned on them that their examination papers were no where in sight. Many of them returned home dispirited and acutely traumatized. This went on for four days until they began the examination on Friday, 22nd July, 2016— the day examination was scheduled to end. Many school teachers had to start calling parents on the phone to send their wards to school to write the examination since many of them had given up hope of writing the examination and have chosen to stay back at home. The starting of the examination didn't bring much respite to students as they were still subjected to further psychological strain. The examination was marred by late arrival of question papers which forced many students to write their papers late into the night. In fact, the conduct of the unified examination this gone term left more to be desired. It unambiguously exposed the shoddiness, ineptness, and unpreparedness of the government to conduct such a statewide examination. One also wonders if an assessment of the effects of the centralized examination has been carried out. Every year, Ogun-State keeps falling in the performance indices release by the West Africa Examination Council—WAEC. This is an incontrovertible proof that the unified examination has had no positive effects on students' performance in external examinations. This has also clearly shown that there is more to improving the standard of education in the state than a unified examination. With the paucity of funds being experienced by the state, it is foolhardy to continue with such money gulping policy. The government should save itself further embarrassment , and school children excruciating psychological trauma by allowing schools to conduct their own examinations as it was hitherto done. This will free up funds that can be channelled into the provision of learning facilities and construction of more classrooms for students. The unified examination has failed to achieve its objectives; it is time to scrap it and save our education from further damage.

I totally agree with you ...... imagine students going home by 5pm on exam day

babalonshee:
I totally agree with you ...... imagine students going home by 5pm on exam day

The unified examination has done more harm than good. Many students won't really enjoy their holidays since their fate still hangs in the balance. The failure to make their promotional examination results available to them has left many of them drifting between fear and hope.

fynestboi, lalasticlala, can this get to the front page?