In 2009, I wrote a WAEC exam in Nigeria. I did not know any pim in mathematics, so I followed the Nigerian standard and copied all the answers from a good friend whom I knew was very good in mathematics class then. When I say I copied, I mean I copied everything, including theory and objective. This guy was very good in maths. I just simply relied on his authority thay day. We were not on the same seat but we had done the needful to the exam officials, so we could move freely in the exam hall to copy from whoever we liked. When WAEC published the results some months later, I made a C in maths, and this guy whom I copied from failed the same maths, he had F. Not just him, many others who were good that I did not talk to that day failed in the exam. In fact, the way it was with the exam, if you pass maths, you will fail english, and if pass english, you will fail maths. But I scaled both, it was my first and probably last WAEC exam. Today, I am rounding up my university program, and my friend who helped me scale through maths in WAEC has only recently (this year) been offered admission into a polytechnique, after all attempts to study engineering in the university failed due to two times failure in WAEC, two times failure in JAMB, and I guess he got tired and relaxed with the poly choice this year. There are thousands of students like him in Nigeria. I am not a religious person so if any of you reading this post thinks that it is God that made me pass my exam, then you must be joking. Such a God must be unjust, at least to my friend whom I know is very religious. In fact, I do not think I have a good relationship with my God, right from my childhood days. So please dont bring God into this. I equally do not believe in luck or miracles. What happened in that WAEC exam was simply an abnormality in the Nigerian educational system. I simply benefitted from the corruption in our educational system. Why would the Nigerian government tell me that I must have a credit in maths via WAEC even after I have told them that I want to study humanities or liberal arts in the university? Why should the system make maths compulsory for a student like me who has a natural dislike for mathematical patience? I already chose to dislike maths right from my primary school days and the Grammar secondary school I attended did not bother to help me out. They just let me go astray, thanks to free education. Anything above 1 + 1 in maths, count me out. But I had a C in WAEC. Anyway, something is wrong with our educational system, starting from the nursery school and up the PhD level. Let me not say too much before WAEC revokes my result. Later today, I will tell you all another story on why I think Nigeria is a joke! Tony Osborg
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 08:48:08 +0000
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