Monrovia – Wokie Kpanyor is sporting a smile when a visitor entered her office at the St. Teresa’s Convent School as the Vice Principal gleefully exclaimed the successful passing rate of her students in this year’s West African Examination’s Council (WAEC) exams.
Reporter Mae Azango visited a few schools that actually came out with flying colors
“We sent 64 students for the West African Examination Council, (WAEC) for 2015 2016 and every one of them passed the exams with division three,” she says.
The Mass failure of over 22,000 students in the just ended State National Exams administered by WAEC was alarming to the entire Nation, while WAEC announced that over 16,000 students successfully passed the National test.
More than seven schools were announced to have all their students pass the WAEC, while some other students came from other schools that had some students failing the exams.
A few of the Schools who had all their students pass the WAEC, outlined hard studies as a recipe to pass the exam, when spoken to. St. Teresa Convent Catholic School, (STC) in Monrovia sent 64 seniors and 144 junior high students for WAEC, who all passed the exams.
During an exclusive interview in revealing the secret of a successful pass, STC vice Principal Mrs. Kpanyor narrated that hard studies and regular classes made her students pass the National Exams.
“The secret to passing the WAEC is hard studies. We monitored the teacher’s lesson plans and we went according to WAEC syllables and made sure our students studied. We had extra classes for our students which we started after the first marking period, and they stayed back for extra classes for three hours every day,” She says.
“We also sent 144 students from the 9th graders and they all made a pass too, unlike the 12 graders, the 9th graders stared their extra classes directly after the first semester in preparation for the exams.
We are also proud of the 9th graders because it was their first time doing WAEC, unlike the time when sixth graders sat the WAEC We are very proud of our students, because the massive failure of many students according WAEC statistics is worrisome.”
Vice Principal Kpanyor explains that the massive failure came about because many other students allowed people and teachers to fool them in believing the exam had leak and they were given copies of some fake exams.
“To other students who did not make it in the exam, I want to advise them that education is a process and not an event. You have to put in time and study your lesson and be on top of your studies instead of allowing people to fool you.”
“We do not encourage that in our schools, once WAEC give the syllables and you have the national curriculum, there is nothing other than what WAEC gave you will come in the exam.”
Why Flexibility Fees?
It can be recalled that sometimes ago, the problem of collecting money outside of the WAEC registration fees for teachers and other school administrators to show students answers during the Exams known as flexibility fees, was discovered by WAEC and discouraged, but yet it is known by students in Liberia to follow the pattern and still pay money for flexibility fees.
Speaking on the topic of flexibility fees, Vice Principal Kpanyor said it is wrong for some schools to mislead students in not studying but relying on handouts to pass exams.
“Why take money from students for flexibility fees when WAEC fees were paid during registration?
I have heard about other schools who ask students to give flexibility fees, that will allow teachers to show students answers during the time of exams, but we do not encourage it here at our school. Why mislead the students and encourage them not to study when they are supposed to be future leaders for tomorrow?”
Should Camping before WAEC be discouraged?
Mrs. Kpanyor said usually before WAEC, many students go on camps for days, in the name of studying for the exams, but the students do different things order than studying. And her school does not encourage their students to go on camps to study for WEAC.
“Our camping was the three hours extra classes we had for our students. Camping is bad, and it should be discouraged by the society, because the children do all sort of things when they are not really monitored during this camping.
To our students out there, do not be carried away by bad examples, because it is often said the good things are yet to come.
You are to focus on what you are learning now and don’t jump stage in in your lives, but make the best of yourselves. To parents, they should start monitoring their children and checking with the school to make sure the students are not lying to parents.
If the students come out good, it benefits the society at large and both schools and parents would be proud.”
Taking a tour on the all-girls campus, parents were seen taking their children to register for the upcoming school year, while other parents went to pay for entrance and placement examination.
At the same time, FPA was able to see and speak with 18 year old Student Victoria Tavas, who outlined why she and her friends passed the WAEC.
“We did not sit when other students sat due to EBOLA, because we are the Ebola seniors, but we came for extra classes every day. We went through hard studies, because our principal encouraged us to do better and she applied tension on the teachers to teach us very well.”
When asked as to whether the exam was hard and if they did independent work, she replied:
“As long as you study, there will be nothing too hard to do, even though we had some difficulties, but we did our best.
Most especially the chemistry was very challenging, because some topics that we only touched the surface, WAEC brought it in depth, but we did our best and attempted all questions.
We did independent work during the exams because the instructors were very hard on us; we are used to doing independent work in our school during test.”
Leaked test
Victoria said they heard some other students from different schools talking about the exam leaking, but they did not believe it.
She advised her friends out there who did not make it in WAEC, to always learn to do independent work and not wait for people to fool them in giving answers to pass the exams.
“To my friend out there, hard study is very good, because we are not doing things for the present, but we are doing it for the future.
Especially to ladies, this is why education is best, because when you are successful and working out there, it feels so nice doing things on your own, because you won’t have to wait for men to give you money or do things for you.”
Victoria who said it has been her dreams to become a neurosurgeon when she finishes school, because Liberia has only Neurosurgeon, who is an older Doctor.
“I want to be a neurosurgeon because in Liberia, we only have one neurosurgeon, which is Dr. Sherman and he studied in South Africa. So my dad will find a way to send me out of Liberia for further studies to do my dream,” Concluded Victoria.
Another school FPA spoke to was the Child Development Academy (CDA), located in Sinkor Monrovia. The school sent nine 12 graders, and all of the students passed the national Exams. Madam Matilda George, Principal of CDA; disclosed that the nine students sent were, three girls and sixth boys, who passed division three in WAEC.
“The secret is, hard studies, and make sure your teachers teach effectively and come to classes regularly. Give the students enough assignment, quizzes and class work at all times, keep them busy.
Since January, we had extra classes for them every Saturday from 8am to 1pm and I monitored the teachers, students and parents to find out if a child came to class or not. And the school cannot do all, the parents have to help by making sure their children study regularly and do not leave it on the teachers alone to do it for your child.”
Malpractice Example and Flexibility fees
Mrs. George further disclosed that showing students answers during exams is considered examination malpractice, and cited an instance on the day of the exams, when she took her students to the examination hall and warned them not to listen to anybody who tell them pay for answers.
“Do you know that my students told me after the exams, that the security and Police people minding them were asking them for money so that they could show them the answers? And I felt very bad to hear that.
I hear about flexibility fees that some schools ask students to pay and that is bad, because we are teaching the children to bribe their way through and not study to pass. Even when the students finish high school, they will bribe their way through college because it is what you taught them. Teachers and parents should always do our best to teach our children.”
Corruption in Schools
Principal George said many of the administrators who run schools are corrupted, because asking students for money to do something already paid for is wrong.
“I even discovered on my way to WAEC office for information, I met a parent who told me that some schools were charging the students L$350.00 for the chip to check their results when everything was included in the WAEC fees. It should not be that way. Is this not corruption? We are crying about corruption every day in the government, when we the principals and school administrators are practicing corruption as well, by extorting money from students.”
Camping before WAEC
Answering to the question of students camping before WAEC, she said she does not encourage camping and does not support students going on camps to study for WAEC.
“I do not encourage students camping for exams because when students go on camps, they do all sort of things, such as; drinking, smoking and taking drugs, while some of the girls even get pregnant from camping. So I want to encourage parents to make their children study at home where they can be monitored. I say this because when children go on camps, the parent do not know what they are doing there, whether they are studying or not, or if they are doing man and woman business, you are there to monitor them, so it should be discouraged,” Madam George ended.
More girls than Boys sent for WAEC
Liberian – Turkish Light International School sent 18 seniors and all 18 students passed the exams, but the interesting part about it is that, 12 of the students were girls while six were boys.
“The secret is hard studies and discipline, the students knew when to study and when to play and when to rest. They did not study only when there were exams, but they always studied and read regularly. We had extra WAEC classes on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and we would draw exams for them to get used to the exam style. We are very proud of our students; because when they go to university and do well, it is my school name will go,” Says School Principal, Alper Erkan.
Speaking about students going on camps to study before exams, he said Students should not go on camps because there is time for everything, time to study and time to party, so during WAEC, students should study heard.
Addressing examination malpractice, Principal Erkan said after WAEC, life continues, so when his students go to university and perform poorly, because they were shown answers to pass, it will speak bad about the school.
“If I encourage my students not to study and give them answers to pass exams, it will be the shame of my school, so we allow our students to study hard.”
“Female students are focus than male students”
Speaking as to why the female students sent for WAEC were more than the male students, Principal Erkan said even though the ratio of boys to girls is Fifty, Fifty in his schools, but he has noticed that Most of their successful students are females and even last year was the same. And said all in all, both male and female children are important.
“Female students are more successful because they are focused and always study more than the male students. I believe the reason female students are more focused than the male students is because if they do not get educated, life will be difficult for them, but if they get educated, life will be fine for them. We thanked the parents for sending their daughters to school.”