The Withdrawal Of Academically Weak Students From Our Tertiary Institutions, Entrance Exams, And Interviews Can Save The Ugly Situation

The Free Senior High Education Policy must be blamed for this awful and woeful academic performance by students in our tertiary institutions across the country. Though the intention of the policy is perfect, it was politically instead of nationally implemented, hence the crises it's faced with at the moment.

Aside from the fact that the government doesn't provide adequate teaching and learning materials for senior high schools, an examination that is a way of assessing students' performance has also been appalling. What is the point if poorly performed students are not withdrawn or repeated to purge the system of poor academic performance? Therefore, the continuous passage of students, who can't pass their exams from one stage to the other must be a huge concern to all.

Also, immorality has increased in our senior high schools because the government prohibits the disciplining, sacking, or even suspension of undisciplined students. This allows many female students to get pregnant in schools and carry it around with pride and impunity. The future of this country is bleak because we have lost focus on the path of our educational system. Simply because political parties want to win elections, they keep playing with the lives of our future leaders by implementing many voodoo policies that can't stand the test of time. We sit aloof without rejecting these bogus policies because we are either clouded by rationality or political propensity. Many of the educational experts and technocrats who can see through a policy and reject it are rather in vehement support of these policies because of the pact they have with political party A or B and this is not helping our course of educational progression.

To add to these problems, I think teachers not being properly motivated is another significant cause of poor academic performance in our schools. The teacher is the pivot who turns around learning activities in our schools. Therefore, there is a need for teachers to be highly motivated to give out their best. But many teachers in this country are burdened financially and this affects their morale and classroom deliveries. When the honourable poor teacher looks at how his colleagues are making it big in politics and other areas of life, he becomes more devastated and less effective in the classroom. This is why I would have thought that the Free Senior High Education would have considered the plight of the poor teacher as one major priority to enhance the quality delivery of the policy.

Furthermore, the infamous double-track system is another canker affecting effective teaching and learning in senior high schools across the country. How can students stay at home for close to 4 or 5 months without learning anything and we still expect them to write and pass their final exams? What magic can teachers perform to have such students pass? The government has promised to end this unhelpful tracking system but it's more a mirage than a reality. Many schools are still without accommodation, classrooms, furniture, and many other logistics and resources needed to stop the tracking system completely.

What is more pathetic is the fact that; many of these students refuse to learn or don't simply have learning materials. Imagine a student in his or her second year without the necessary textbooks to read. They do not have proper feeding and lack good sleeping places all because the government finds it financially impossible to fund these things. All these create an unconducive environment for the students to learn. Therefore, during their final year exams, they engage in every ungodly act just to pass their exams. And these are the very students who end up in tertiary institutions with embellished grades. How can they ever pass their exams at the tertiary level?

Finally, I endorse the bringing back of the entrance exams and interviews in our tertiary institutions as a way of selecting potential students for the various programmes in the tertiary institutions. This will pave the way for improved academic performance and enable the graduates to contribute their quota towards the development of this country.