A Nigerian Professor and inventor has strongly condemned the cancellation, by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), of the Physics results of all the students that offered the subject in the most recent WAEC examination in Abia State.
Dr Chidi Esike, the inventor of the world renowned Esike’s Technique and an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, said there was no way WAEC’s action could be justified.
He argued in an open letter entitled, “WAEC and the Cancellation of the Physics Examination Result of all the Schools in Abia”, that WAEC’s excuse that the Physics Practical Examination was compromised does not hold water.
“What this means is that all the students in Abia State that wrote Physics cannot proceed to any higher institution of learning this year to read Medicine, Engineering, other science-related courses, etc, both in Nigeria and abroad. What a way to waste, traumatise and humiliate a hardworking and brilliant generation of Nigerian students in Abia State for the sloppiness and incompetence of WAEC and her recurring and scandalous association with examination leakage,” Esike lamented.
He said that “WAEC surely needs to explain and indeed answer some burning questions for this selective blanket maltreatment to and stigmatization of Nigerian students schooling in Abia State.”
Dr. Esike then posed the following questions: “The Physics paper consists of three parts, namely the main paper, the multiple choice and the practical. Is it really proper for WAEC to cancel this paper in a whole state because one of the 3 parts was adjudged compromised as we were told? What happens to those students and schools that tried to be honest and wrote the exam on their own and could be adjudged to be brilliant by their all-round consistent high performance in all their other subjects? Given the grave implication of cancelling this paper and compromising the future of all science students in a whole state who arguably are in the majority, could WAEC not have judged these students with the two parts that were not compromised or go ahead to reset and reschedule the compromised exam for the students since if the paper leaked since it was due to the fault of WAEC and because a whole state was involved? Again, how is WAEC sure that a paper which had a state-wide leakage was limited to only Abia State without involvement of students of other states? In this case, is singling out the students of a particular state for punishment really and honestly justified?”
“The truth,” according to Dr. Esike, “is that WAEC was unjust to Abia State students and this their decision must be challenged by all Nigerians – parents, Parents Teachers Associations, the National Assembly, the Ministry of Education and indeed all men and women of goodwill. The era where statutory bodies set up to assist development in a particular area will be failing in their duties and riding roughshod with impunity over the people they are supposed to serve should be over.”
Esike noted that though “as responsible parents, we all should support WAEC to carry out its onerous, delicate and sacred responsibility but in the same vein, we will all be failing in our sacred responsibility if we allow WAEC to toy with and destroy the academic future and destiny of our children.”
He warned: “Today it is Abia State. If we fail as a nation to engage WAEC and hold her responsible and accountable for this her action, it surely will be another state tomorrow.”
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