WHAT NIGERIAN SECONDARY SCHOOLS MUST DO TO ASSIST THEIR STUDENTS PASS WAEC/NECO ENGLISH EXAMINATIONS

1. A school can invest money in relevant novels, magazines, newspapers and set up novel summary schemes forthnightly or on a monthly basis to assess primarily, the level of comprehension and   vocabulary development and the applicaton of literary techniques. For example,each student should be asked to extract 10-20 new words from each book with their meanings for future reference.If the school does not have the required funds to sustain the scheme, parents should be asked to contribute financially or otherwise by ensuring that their wards read these novels.Parents can also encourage their children to join a well stocked public library in their domains like the LAGOS BOOKS CLUB…unfortunately there are not too many like LBC around.
2. It is also imperative that English tutors be monitored closely on their use of grammar from the first day they sent in an application letter for employment. These need to be continued through their Oral interviews to their eventual engagement. Their enthusiasm for turning English into a lively subject, should also be observed and taken into consideration for their employment.
3..The school should also set up disciplinary measures and controls to discourage the constant use of pidgin language spoken on school’s premises. Such measures include counselling, impositions, corporal punishment or monetary penalties are to ensure that students understand the school means business. Staff members should also be encouraged to act as soldiers at the gate of pidgin english. From experience, it is obvious that the battle for the “spirit”of pidgin english in a school will be arduous before it can be captured or exorcised. Only emphatic tenacity and determination by school management can make things work as expected.
4. Students should also be made to contribute articles and literary write-ups or extracts from other people or from the internet to the English notice board or the school magazine, or a combination of the two known as NOTAZINE at EDUPEDIA…
5.The school time-table should also be planned in a way that allows students organize or get acquainted with the nature of the 3 major papers in the WAEC and NECO exams. When students are able to identify these papers and are aware of the objectives of each, it’s possible errors, what is required for finesse, the marks and time allocation to each, they might start showing more interest out of familiarity with the nature of the subject. This is because students  normally appreciate techniques and short-cut methods theses days. However, teaching them ”techniques” should be regarded as a complimentary effort to peak their interest or to simplify a lot of explanations teachers would have had to make in their classrooms.
6.During after-school activities, quizzes and debate competitions should be well organzed not ony through well-articulated programmes but also by the aims and goals which should be methodically  identified and deliberately lnked to English. Those facing  final exams should have their regular classes for “text book” English according to their schemes of work. Whereas the remedial periods should be used for teaching them about mark boosters and mark reducers such as errors

A.BOOSTERS FOR USE BY SCHOOLS/TUTORS FOR WAEC /NECO ESSAYS
Here are some related topics already prepared by EDUPEDIA for use by schools and their tutors
1.BASIC ARRANGEMENTS FOR TACKLING ESSAYS IN THE CLASSROOM
2.HOW TO WRITE NARRATIVE ESSAYS OR ARTICLES(FOR SCHOOL MAGAZINES OR NATIONAL NEWSPAPER IN ACCORDANCE WITH WAEC AND NECO EXAMINATIONS
3.HOW TO WRITE DESCRIPTIVE ESSAYS.
4.HOW TO PREPARE ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAYS OR PREPARE STUDENTS FOR DEBATES/DISCUSSIONS.
5.HOW TO PREPARE SPEECHES
6.HOW TO DELIVER A SPEECH(NOT PART OF THE EXAMINATIONS BUT GOOD FOR TELEVISION COMPETITIONS, INTER-SCHOOL DEBATES OR INTERNAL SCHOOL DEBATES
7.HOW ENGLISH ESSAYS ARE MARKED BY WAEC/NECO EXAMINERS
8.HOW TO PREPARE FOR COMPREHENSION AND SUMMARY QUESTIONS AND HOW THEY ARE MARKED BY EXAMINERS.
9. FACE TO FACE WITH FIGURES OF SPEECH AND IDIOMS/WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT LEXIS,STRUCTURE AND ORALS
10.1800 DIFFICULT WORDS FOR VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT AND SPELLING IMPROVEMENT(AS EXTRACTED FROM MORE THAN 20 YRS OF WAEC/NECO EXAMINATIONS
11.DECODING THE BIG PUZZLE KNOWN AS JAMB’S “USE OF ENGLISH” EXAMINATION PAPER
B.AVOIDANCE/REDUCTION OF ERRORS
12.750 PHONETICALLY DANGEROUS PAIRS FOR REDUCTION OF SPELLING ERRORS OR DEMONS
13.THE COMEDY OF ERRORS BY NIGERIAN STUDENTS COVERING GRAMMAR,PUNCTUATIONS AND SPELLINGS IN WAEC/NECO EXAMS.
14.UN-ENGLISH NIGERIAN EXPRESSIONS AND THE SAGA OF DIRECT TRANSLATIONS FROM THE VERNACULAR
15.HOW PIDGIN DISTORTS LEARNING OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE:BUT ANY SOLUTION YET?