When the best is not available, the available becomes the best. The notion is a recurrent phenomenon in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in Sierra Leone. Fingers are being pointed at SLPP (Sierra Leone People’s Party) for facilitating fake WASSCE grades which they exchange for votes.
If the best lacks confidence, what about the others? WASSCE best pupils always say that their excellence in WASSCE “comes as a surprise.” The statement runs contrary to what many expected best candidates to say. It is a confirmation of the widespread claim that WASSCE today is mere window-dressing as Pupils no longer work for it.
The candle is no longer burned at both ends. It is a new form of WASSCE politicisation by SLPP politicians to canvass for votes for next year’s polls. At the last minute, the ruling party is politicising almost everything. It has politicised public institutions to the shock and awe of almost every Sierra Leonean, and now WASSCE is the last to politicise.
Government achieves their mission by offering admirable grades to undeserving pupils. The effect cannot be felt today, but in the future. One’s does not swell the day he eats salt, but in weeks to come. WASSCE was introduced to Sierra Leone in mid 1990’s as an entry point to universities and colleges.
It replaced the General Certificate Examination (GCE) Ordinary and Advanced Levels. Getting both old exams out of the system means WASSCE must be tight and tough so that students could brood over books to pass through the main door and not the window. WASSCE used to be a hard nut to crack prior to politicisation.
However, it is now an easy pushover for many weak and dull pupils who could not even sit in a JSS (Junior Secondary School) class in a good secondary school. The ruling party has crafty way of doing it. They offer gratis passes to those who could not make it.
A commerce pupil, Mariama Kamara (not her real name) expressed comments that show cast doubt on how she came to get the grades. Mariama, told Nightwatch that she was taken by surprise when she saw her WASSCE grades. She was not good at Mathematics and English while in school, but she got the best scores in the two subjects.
She got B’s in the two most critical subjects. “I could not believe it when I saw my result,” she expressed joy. It was also the same for last year. Pupils who could not pass an ordinary class exam excelled in the WASSCE. Mediocre pupils who find it extremely difficult to cope with an ordinary classwork came out with flying colours ever seen in WSSSCE history.
Conferring sound WASSCE passes on weak pupils is defeating the very purpose for the introduction of the 6-3-3-4 system of education. The underlying motive of the education system is to enhance the country’s middle manpower. This means those who could not make it to universities could fall into the middle manpower sector of the economy.
They would become good builders, welders, plumbers, tailors or seamstresses, electricians, motor mechanics. This is how most countries reach the peak to where they are today. Such West African countries as Ghana and Nigeria have today become the envy of other nations through the proper application of the 6-3-3-4 education policy. Even the Gambia which has similar education policy is doing better than Sierra Leone.
With the abuse of the system, many weak pupils known as ‘dead-on-arrivals’ found their way in various universities and colleges where they spend years. Sometimes, they end up coming with weak degrees making it difficult to contribute to society.
Without much, most of them go back to their almametres where they teach just to make ends meet. The task of knowledge delivery is meant for those who possess knowledge. One cannot give what he does not have.
Service delivered by a weak teacher is weak in itself with a ripple effect. Such service accumulates in a tide of evil which affects every facet of society. Everything whether good or bad has a beginning. The production of weak pupils at all layers of education started when Professor Alpha Wurie introduced the Education For All (EFA) policy in Sierra Leone in early 2000.
Prof Wurie who is current Minister of Technical and Higher Education was also education minister between 1996 and 2007. By this policy, every Sierra Leonean must be educated at all cost.
The EFA policy, no doubt, nurtured a system in which every pupil enjoy rapid promotions from one class to another until they land in tertiary institutions. In the good old days, a pupil could proceed to the next class only when they got the required passes. Today, it is the reverse.
A pupil could move from one stage of education to another regardless of their academic strength. SLPP government is slowly killing the country for political advantage. It is a common adage among SLPP politicians that if you want to damage the country, kill education.
The SLPP politicians made the statement during campaigns referring to former President Ernest Bai Koroma as one who killed education in Sierra Leone.
But, they did not show how the former President strangled education. If education was indeed murdered by the past government as SLPP politicians alleged, they are now burying it as they embark on the worst. The effect of the death of education in Sierra Leone has already manifested in several ways.
The country lacks the required professionals that can lift the country out of the doldrums of poverty and under-development. Sierra Leone has produced engineers who cannot construct roads and bridges. Foreign construction companies have to be consulted or contracted to ensure a good roads network in the country.
Senegalese and Chinese construction companies CSE and CRSG respectively have got much of Sierra Leone’s funds to do the country’s roads. Sierra Leone has produced medical doctors who cannot take care of major and complex illnesses. Ghana has received and treated a good number of patients from Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone has produced lawyers who find it difficult to represent their clients.
In many cases, foreign lawyers and judges are employed costing the country very highly. Sierra Leone has produced geologists who cannot the country’s mineral wealth. The mineral resources are being mined and carted away by foreign companies.
The list continues. It is a direct consequence of politicisation of education in Sierra Leone. The politicisation process has shocked almost everyone since that was not what SLPP promised Sierra Leoneans. The ruling party promised Free Quality Education, and the quality is being eroded by bringing in politics.
Initially, SLPP started well when the Crack Squad was set up at the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). The crack squad has cracked down on many teachers and pupils caught pants down in exam malpractices. Spying, collusion and other forms of malpractices ha almost faded away, but SLPP’s thirst for votes has reversed gains made.
Government knows very well that it has lost popularity among the pupils owing to false promises. The only way government can compensate the pupils is to give them fake grades with hope of getting votes to remain in power for another term. Former Vice Chancellor of the University of Sierra Leone, Professor Ekundayo Thompson said in a certification ceremony that Sierra Leone still needed the critical mass of engineers, medical doctors, geologists and scientists who can lift this country out of poverty.
But the great question: How can Sierra Leone produce such competent professionals with fake WASSCE grades?