By Ibraheem Daramy
FEENSOLA
When the Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) Conrad Sackey, faced the cameras analysing this year’s West Africa Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) results, I was thinking maybe this man is from another planet. What is wrong if he’d resigned? It’s the honourable thing to do anyway. These performances just conflicts with whatever the Free Quality School Education (FQSE) sets out to achieve. Barring the roll, which is on the high side, I can’t figure any other box actually being ticked.
Let’s set aside the nearly fifty thousand (50,000) whose results are yet to see the light of the day, probably they never would, and deal with those that allegedly played by the rules. On the evidence of the results released, the Minister acknowledged its abysmal nature, even though he made efforts to give a positive spin to it. The national feeling of the results under review is like a child who was notified about the tragic passing of his parents. Since you are not the person whose folks just got snatched by death, you wouldn’t know the void that child would be left to deal with for the rest of his life. So in your attempt to make his parent’s passing look inevitable, you will be perceived as insensitive. Exactly how I would want to describe the Minister. The man was unfazed, the level of his equanimity left me feeling gutted.
Just twenty four (24) hours after the announcement of results that will go down in our recent history as the worst ever, the very Minister went on air to pronounce an Emergency Training for English Teachers Now I can see the connection why most members of society are calling for his head. Others even went a step further in suggesting a judicial evaluation to his conduct in these examinations. Is he indirectly faulting the teachers for the forgettable performance of the kids? Of course he is. I might not be questioning the competencies of the teachers, but it’s evidently clear they are not motivated. Their conditions of service are laughable. The problems of our falling educational standards are collective, but certainly the kids are right at the bottom of it.
As a Pan-Africanist, I see our attachment to the language of the oppressor as proof that the shackles were only removed physically. I am a souvereigntist all day long – so you’ll have to understand my stance. I don’t get it why somebody’s dream of becoming a Medical Doctor, Engineer, Accountant, etc. will be denied because of the language of an alien. The Chinese company, Chico China Hennan, that won the tender to do the three (3) towns water protect in Makeni and Kenema had just one (1) of their expatriate staff who barely spoke English. As they handed over both projects upon completion, government and the donors were quite impressed with the work they did. Never mentioned on the quality of English they spoke.
With regards to the allegation that some candidates used artificial intelligence (AI) to answer some or all of the questions, what would you rather they do when that is where the very questions came from. There’s no arguing about the source of those questions – I already did my work. Talk to the examiners or former examiners of the West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC) who were frequently flown to Abuja, Banjul and Accra to review and draw questions. I can guarantee you, most, if not all, have been replaced by the very machine that is in the dock for aiding and abetting. No wonder the Swedish authorities are replacing tablets/computers with tons of books. According to them, the ability to read and understand is currently at an all time low. They have just taken wholesome responsibility for introducing something that is undermining the kids cognitive ability. This is leadership.
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