Monrovia – Liberia’s “messy” education system and the lack of will from national actors to improve it, is now creating difficulties for students participating in the ongoing sub-regional examination.
Report by Willie N. Tokpa, [email protected]
High school students participating in the West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) risk mass failure in the 2018 exercise.
The students and some school administrators have complained about the tests being difficult.
Liberian 12 graders on Tuesday, April 3, 2018, joined their counterparts in the sub-region to officially partake in the examination. This is the first time that Liberian students are participating in the sub-regional tests.
The West African Examination Council (WAEC), which is administering the test, has estimated the number of students participating in the test to be 30,000.
WASSCE has been administered since 2015 as a trial test in Liberia with selected schools joining the team. But this is the first time that it is being administered on a full scale to all high schools in the country.
Students sitting the WASSCE said the examination is strange and that they are finding it difficult to respond to most of the questions.
Diamond Cooper, a 12 grader of the Seventh Day Adventist High School at the ELWA Junction, Paynesville, noted that the questions are far different from what they had been taught most of their primary and secondary school lives.
“On Tuesday, the Chemistry Test we took, I was not able to answer more than two questions. The test was very hard. Even see this Physics Test paper in my hand, it has three questions, but I am not able to answer one. So so graph problems; we were never taught any of these topics,” student Cooper complained, sadly.
Another student, Varney Gamba, attending the Nathan E. Gibson High School, expressed fear of not doing well in the tests because of the similar reasons.
According to him, they are awarded enough time but that because they don’t know the answers to the questions, a whole day won’t still seem enough for a single subject.
“At least the Liberia Secondary School Certificate Examination was alright. We have been learning from past test papers but I can’t understand this other one here,” student Gamba lamented.
The students are not the only ones to express their frustrations. Some school administrators have expressed theirs, too, saying the WASSCE runs contrary to Liberia’s educational curriculum.
Dada Drapper, Principal of Patmelia Academic School System, said he does not see the possibility of students performing excellently in the test.
According to Drapper, instead of the Ministry of Education preparing its curriculum in line with WASSCE syllables, the government education body planned in line with Liberia Secondary School Certificate Examination guideline.
This he said is causing serious problem for students sitting the WASSCE to effectively respond to the test.
“Since the first day, the children are unable to do the tests because our students were taught in line with the LSSCE syllables and not WASSCE syllables. Our students were taught from the LSSCE syllables because the Ministry of Education draws its curriculum from the LSSCE syllables instead of WASSCE syllables,” Drapper noted.
He wants WAEC revisits its decision of administering the test to Liberian high school students now.
Cancellation of the examination, according to him, will provide a mean for the country’s educational system to adequately prepare for the test in the future.
Drapper, however, noted that the huge investment of US$2.1 million to address 12 graders’ WASSCE fees might end up being a waste due to the inability of most of the students to respond to the test.
Upon Taken office as Liberia’s 25th President, Mr. George Weah announced the payment of all 12 graders’ fees for the WASSCE. He gave the initial US$200,000 of a total US$2.1 million.
“My government has already started to disburse these fees by committing an initial amount of US$200, 000,” the President said to legislators and others, who had gathered in the joint chambers of the Legislature to listen to him deliver his first annual address to the nation.
Prior to the announcement of the fees payment, there were quarrels over the administering of the exam, with some indicating that Liberia was not prepared for the test.
Contrary to the argument, WAEC boss, Mr. Dale Gbote, however, noted that the disagreement was not about being unprepared but unwillingness of parents to pay the fees of students.