‘Why We Want To Employ 500 Graduates’
Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola has said government decided to employ 500 graduates to teach in public schools in order to arrest mass failure and prepare the students adequately for external examinations.
He added that the decision was also to create employment for young graduates, and that the policy was also aimed at bridging the gap in the society between the rich and the poor.
Fashola explained that the several complaints raised by people about the West African Examination Council, WAEC, results being poor prompted government to conduct detailed investigation into the problem.
He revealed that part of the findings was that beyond the pupils that passed their examinations in five subjects, including English and Mathematics at one sitting, no one bothered about what happened to other candidates.
“People have focused on those with credits in five subjects because that is the minimum requirement for admission into tertiary institutions. It means every time results are released, we have left out people who had five credits with only Mathematics or five credits with only English and even people with six credits without any of the two main subjects.
“What it means is that there is a weakness somewhere. I had the figures investigated and it showed that it was only with people who had five credits in English and Mathematics that the ratings and performance was measured.
“First, we saw that out of the 60,000 students who sat for the examinations in 2007, the percentage pass was seven per cent; by 2008, it moved to 10 per cent; by 2009, it was 18 per cent and by 2010, it was 21 per cent. But what about people who passed six subjects with only English or those with six or five credits with only Mathematics? We saw that many of them passed but in reporting, we only focused on those who made it at one sitting,†he said
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