The Kwara Central Senatorial Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party and one-time commissioner for education in Kwara State, Mallam AbdulGaniyu Bolaji Abdullahi has called on the state government and all other stakeholders not to politicise the recently released West African School Certificate examination results.
The former minister said while it may be painful, or even embarrassing to see Kwara State perform so poorly in the examination, the results should serve as a wake-up call to everyone rather than opportunity to trade blames, shift responsibilities or score political points.
The results released earlier in the week, shows Kwara State ranking number 34 out of 36 states and FCT. Since the results were released, there have been a barrage of accusations and counter-accusations between officials of the present government and the previous administration in the state.
However, Abdullahi noted that “instead of pointing accusing fingers at one another, we should all own this poor results and work together to find explanations and solutions to the problem. Afterall, all the children that sat for the examination are our children, regardless of party affiliations. What is at stake is the future of Kwara State. And this result has shown that our future is collectively endangered. What these children need is help not someone to blame,” he said.
Abdullahi therefore calls on the state government, the parents, and even the students and all stakeholders to immediately come together to address the serious problems of poor quality of education in the State.
“The State government has the convening authority. They should therefore be humble enough to seek solutions wherever they can find them. This result has shown that whatever interventions the state government may have made have not delivered the desired outcomes.
My experience suggests that when faced with this kind of challenge, it is best to take a system-wide review and a strategic sector reform for both short and long term outcomes. Such mass failure as we have seen can only be consequence of fundamental problems that have been left unaddressed. All these children could not have been equally bad. Therefore, these results can only mean that the system that produced them has failed. We must be humble enough to admit this and be caring enough to address it. Therefore, what this sad situation calls for is big ideas, not self-serving politics,” Abdullahi affirmed.
