WHY STUDENTS PERFORM BADLY IN WAEC/NECO ENGLISH LANGUAGE EXAMINATIONS

PREAMBLE : In this write-up, ‘’English’’ means English Language. Examination bodies refer to WAEC and NECO, while the main syllabus format relates more to WAEC.
1.MASS FAILURE IN ENGLSH: Available statistics from WAEC show that the percentage of student non-performers (those with grades D7 to F9) are usually more than 75% of the total examination candidates each year. The situation is so bad, that experts now feel that the level of English usage by our SSCE candidates  suggest that English is a foreign language in Nigeria and not a second language.
2.IMPORTANCE OF ENGLISH: As a second language in Nigeria, English is important because it forms a bridge across our various local and indigenous languages. It also serves as a vehicle of mutual understanding within a neutral environment of ethnic and linguistic plurality. English is a mandatory subject that all students must pass  for the validation of their senior certificate exams.  Passing all subjects except English, renders the examination void as many courses in higher institutions require more than a simple ‘Pass’ in English for admittance.
3.FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR FAILURE: So what could be the reason(s) for the ‘systemic’ failure that seems to have become fashionable? We may attempt to list some reasons below, but it appears from the comments of our examination bodies that the problems are traceable to schools, teachers, peer groups, parents, and recently, the internet and the intensely popular e-mails and phone texting.
4.SCHOOLS: It has been noticed that many schools pay only lip service to the study of English. For instance, hardly can one find in majority of secondary schools, any programme deliberately designed to make students really appreciate and live for English as expected. Apart from badly arranged time-tables and tutors with only paper qualifications, the co-curricula activities arranged to promote the subject, hardly scratch the surface of the objective. Furthermore, deliberate efforts are not made to discourage “PIDGIN English”, which has become too common, even amongst the children from homes with high incomes and living standards. In our universities, “PIDGIN” is actually the LINGUA FRANCA and the roots for this can easily be traced back to secondary schools. Schools need to wage some war on what is called “PIDGIN” because it has become a huge phenomenon for many anti-social acts including cultism in higher institutions. Today’s  Nigerian student is exposed to different types of pidgin from home-grown pidgin, to the pidgin used in American films and west indian pidgin music, which could blur the lines between the proper terms of English if not correctly guided by his or her school.In addition, there is no emphasis on the oral aspect of the language or a simple corner or board created for pasting English-related articles to whip up the interest of students in the subject. Many schools do not have English indoctrinating materials to build up orientation or a culture of good English.  What exists in most schools is the over flogging of schemes of work and past examination papers. There is nothing to assist students in the practical application of the subject from the perspective of being a contributory factor for the much talked about “All round education”.
5.TEACHERS: From experience, teachers appear to be the major problem. Many tutors do not teach English to inspire their students to make appropriate use of it or make any effort at self-improvement after school hours or away from the classrooms. English is a living subject which reflects the quality of education a student has received at any point in life. Since most students here learn the culture of reading or self study, every good English teacher must appreciate the need to reformat his or her methods for motivating students. Unfortunately, many teachers, after attaining the pinnacle of self-improvement, display a general lack of awareness of, or enthusiasm for solving the current problems of each of their students. They also seem disinterested in the strategic imperatives required to inspire the interest of these students.
6.PEER GROUPS,PARENTS & SOCIETY: Peer groups, parents and the society generally make students fail English exams by encouraging the use of “PIDGIN”. Whereas the WAEC schemes of work is based on what may be termed “Queen’s English”. Pidgin language is counter-productive to the efforts of English teachers in grammar and phonology e.g. “I dey come” instead of  “I’ll be back”, “dem” instead of “them”or “sontin” instead of “something”. Please see our  more detailed write-up on Pidgin  and use by our students. It has become so bad such that an SS3 student recently begged the Lagos State House of Assembly to be allowed to address the gathering  in pidgin!
7.THE INTERNET:  The internet, whose popularity and usage has loomed large, has not been helpful either. This is because of its corner-cutting format of English for the purpose of speed during communication. In the process, a lot of grammatical and punctuation rules are broken, yet regarded as acceptable or web-friendly. With the enormous leaps and strides being made by “web-english”,and the unavoidable relevance of the internet to the lives and education of our students, it is likely that we are witnessing the dawning revolution of spoken and written English. This may eventually change the future structure of examinations too. Suffice to say however, that the pervading influences of the internet and other sources of mass communication is not very helpful for now.
8.CONCLUSION: Having noted that many students these days want to be spoon-fed, we have developed additional write-ups to either boost or point out likely errors to fill-in the gaps created by the problems listed above. And while many students prefer studies- made- easy gadgets popularly called “Exam Focus”, “Round Up” or “Key points for Examination Preparation”there are still several steps which can  be taken to encourage their quest for knowledge.We intend to itemize these through write-ups on this forum from time to time.