Iyela Ajayi, the Executive Secretary of the National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC), has disclosed that a significant proportion of the 2024 National Examination Council (NECO) candidates might not advance to tertiary education.
The reason? An alarming 40% of them failed to secure credits in the critical subjects of Mathematics and English Language.
Addressing educators in Calabar during a five-day Capacity Building Workshop for English Language and Mathematics Teachers from the South-South region, Mr. Ajayi highlighted the dire educational situation. “The 2024 NECO results indicate that only 61% of candidates achieved five credits and above, including Mathematics and English Language, leaving a concerning 40% unable to credit these core subjects,” he stated.
This issue isn’t isolated to NECO alone. Mr. Ajayi further revealed that in the 2024 West African Examination Council (WAEC) exams, 28% of candidates also failed these essential subjects, jeopardizing their access to higher education.
The Executive Secretary emphasized the critical role of teachers in transforming the educational sector. “There is no doubt that there is a teacher problem in Nigeria in terms of quality and quantity. This is why, as a commission, we lay emphasis on the training and retraining of teachers, especially in the two core subjects,” he asserted.
Mr. Ajayi underscored the importance of teachers as the backbone of any educational system, cautioning that neglecting their training and motivation equates to neglecting education itself, which is counter-productive. He promised that the workshop would enhance pedagogical knowledge, develop assessment skills, and foster collaborative networks among teachers over the five-day duration.
Echoing his sentiments, Cross River’s Commissioner for Education, Stephen Odey, applauded the initiative as a rare and welcomed opportunity for the state. Represented by Emmanuel Ikade, the Permanent Secretary in the state’s Ministry of Education, Odey acknowledged that many teachers had been deprived of training opportunities due to limited funding. He urged the participants to disseminate the knowledge gained to their peers who could not attend.
Adding to the discourse, Samuel Nneji, a resource person from the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science Education at Enugu State University of Technology (ESUT), emphasized the necessity of innovation in teaching. “Teachers need innovative skills. Some of the skills with which we were taught have expired and can’t work in this generation, so we need innovative and creative teachers with strategies that can help the students learn better,” he explained.
