Opinion: Education investments paying Off SEE STATISTICS

Opinion: Education investments
paying Off - Semiu Okanlawon

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Editor’s Note: In this article, Semiu Okanlawon talks
about the improvement in Osun state’s education
sector. He equally justified the huge investment of the
Aregbesola  government in education
Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun state
Fresh information emanating from the West Africa
Examination Council (WAEC) has shown a rise in
performance of students who wrote the May/June West
African Senior School Certificate Examination
(WASSCE) in the state of Osun, as opposed to trending
news stating otherwise.
The analysis of 10 years WASSCE results as seen in the
table below, shows the massive investments in
education by the administration of Ogbeni Rauf
Aregbesola is showing increasing dividends.
Source: WAEC, October 2016
Results seen in the analysis shows Osun students’ who
passed with 5+ credits including English and
Mathematics, reached a record low of 6.86% of the total
number of candidates who sat for the exams in 2007,
long before the advent of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola in the
state.
Most critics fail to analyse Osun’s historical
performance when comparing the performance of
students across states in Nigeria. The laid-back
analysis of comparing state by state performance by
many is faulty, in that, if a state presents only 10,000
candidates for the WASSCE, and 7,500 students are
able to secure 5 credits including mathematics and
English, then such state with a pass rate of 75%, would
be placed above a state who presents 100,000
candidates with a 50% pass rate.
As much as this analysis could be theoretically correct,
it fails to put into consideration, peculiarities of
individual states. Consider the State of Osun for
example, analysis of WASSCE result over a 10-year
period shows considerable improvement in the
performance of students, reaching a climax of 46.3% in
2016.
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While this achievement may appear insignificant at face
value, however, compared to the year 2007 when a
woeful 6.86% pass rate was recorded, it attests to the
considerable interventions the state government has
made to tackle education head on. Since the Ogbeni
administration took over governance in November 2010,
students’ WAEC performance has gradually improved as
seen in the infograph below.
SOURCE: GUARDIAN