On Friday last, the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education convened a press conference to analyze this year’s results of the Gambia Basic Education Certificate Examinations. This is the examination that candidates in Grade Nine write under the auspices of the West Africa Examinations Council.
This means that it is an external examination and schools just field in the candidates and WAEC conducts the exam and is responsible for marking and grading the papers. Following a given syllabus, school managers endeavor to cover all the topics in each given subject.
At the end of a three year course between Grade Seven and Nine, candidates are examined on those topics by which time it is expected that they must have covered all what they are supposed to cover. If the schools had covered all the topics and the candidates make efforts, they can come out with good aggregates.
This year’s results at some level have shown little improvements as there were eighty-eight students who scored Agg. 6. This means that they scored an A Grade in each of the subjects they wrote. This is surely an improvement from the last few years.
However, considering that almost thirty thousand candidates sat to the exams, eighty-eight candidates scoring Agg. 6 is a negligible percentage of the students. And overall, the performance of the children leaves a lot to be desired. A proper and serious retrospection needs to be done so as to diagnose the real problem and solutions sought urgently.
What are the factors responsible for this? Are there enough teaching and learning materials to enable students succeed? Are there enough qualified and dedicated teachers to make students succeed? Is there enough and adequate monitoring of the teaching and learning in schools? Have enough resources been allocated to the teaching and learning of the children of the country?
Presently, these are the questions which need to be answered and from those answers, a strategy can be developed to address the gaps. The best way to develop the country is through providing good, relevant and adequate education to the children!
