Paynesville – A female student from the ELWA Academy who successfully passed the 2018 West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination, Miss Munah J Wlemus is calling on the Ministry of Education to adjust the Curriculum in order to give students a better understanding of the regional examination syllabus.
Miss Wlemus, along with Samuel G. Sumo of the Firestone Senior High School were the top two students to successfully pass the regional exams in the country with credits in English and Mathematics.
Speaking with Frontpage Africa, Miss Wlemus said the mass failure in the exam can be attributed to the lack of early understanding of the syllabus
“WAEC authority needs to adjust the curriculum to suit high school students, so students can catch up with the WASSCE syllabus. I do personally experience that during the test because some of the topics were taught at the end of the academy year at which time we have completed writing the WASSCE exam and we have to go back to class before doing those lessons,” she said.
On June 6, 2018, Authorities of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) Monrovia National Office released provisional results of this year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) maiden exams covering senior and junior high schools.
In the senior high category, of which a total of 33,979 candidates from 600 high schools submitted entries, 21,580 candidates representing 65.15 percent of the candidates who sat the examination were unsuccessful.
According to WAEC authorities, only 11,544 candidates representing 34.85 percent of candidates, who sat the examination made a successful pass in individual subjects. The exam was administered from April 3 to April 20, 2018.
“855 candidates’ results are withheld for examination malpractice, including 60 candidates who were caught with cell phones, 40 candidates caught with foreign materials, 62 candidates caught for irregular activities, 122 candidates for insults and assaults and 571 candidates from 14 schools for collusion,” WAEC said.
Miss Wlemus asks government to set up a program for students who are performing in public test, stressing that the presence of laboratories at schools should be amongst issue the education ministry should addressed.
She further urged students especially girls to focus on their lessons if they wish to compete with their male counterparts.
“I want to applaud Sumo for his excellence in the test and I do encourage him to continue study fo the betterment of Liberia,” she said.
“With these positives coming from us in the WASSCE, I think the government needs to create award like scholarship so that can help students to fight for top honor in their school and public test.”
“If this happens, we can be setting a standard to reserve our talented students to brighten the nation’s future,” she said.
Report by Jaheim T Tumu, FPA Contributor