The news that more than 76% of candidates who sat for the JAMB examination in Nigeria failed has spread like wildfire. According to the Premium Times news, more than 1.9 million candidates wrote the computer-based examination; sadly, a greater number of them scored below 200, which indicates failure. The cause of this massive failure can only be linked to one thing: Poor Preparation.
Last night, I had a conversation with my friend and classmate. He had told me earlier that he wanted to further his education this year, so he sat for the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board Exams (JAMB).
JAMB conducts examinations for prospective undergraduates into Nigerian universities, polytechnics, monotechnics, and colleges of education. So if you want to attend the university or other tertiary institutions in Nigeria, you have to write JAMB exams. It is more like an entrance exam, where your score will determine your fate as to whether you will be given admission or not.
As we were interacting, I asked him if he had checked his results because he had told me he was afraid to check them, so I had to ask again if he had checked. He confirmed that he had indeed checked his results and shared that he passed, hoping to get admission.
While we were still talking, he mentioned something that really made me think hard. He said, "Jamb no be secondary school exam, I learnt the hard way."
That particular comment made me think deeply. This boy was the class genius during our high school days; he was always at the top of the class. Hearing such a comment from him, I was shocked, and it made me wonder why people fail such exams and even school exams.
I came to realize what he meant by that. In secondary schools, students sometimes relax and won't study until the night before the examination, when they burn the midnight oil-cramming notes that will be poured onto answer sheets during exams. I can remember engaging in such acts during my high school days. Even though I was a bright student, sometimes I get reluctant to study and won't prepare for exams until the last hour.
So by saying that JAMB and other tertiary exams are not like our secondary school exams, he actually meant that they are not exams where one waits until the last hour to prepare, and I quite agree with that.
Countless times people fail examinations because of poor preparation, especially not studying at all and waiting until the last hour before the exams to cram, which is no preparation at all. What usually happens is that our brain goes blank, and, just like magic, you cannot even remember a single thing. Talking from experience, it is always as though your village people are after you and have vowed not to let you pass the exam. And because cramming doesn't allow for a deep understanding of the material, it can result in lower exam scores compared to if you had studied consistently over time.
With this same attitude, a lot of people go to write other exams, thinking it is the same as school exams, where all you have to do is cram and pour. Imagine going to write an exam like JAMB without proper preparation. The results will indeed make you learn the hard way.
With the current results from the just-concluded JAMB examination, who is to be blamed? Clearly, this is no time to apportion blame; it is obvious that the education system needs a total revolution and sanitization in order to restore sanity. Students need to wake up, and teachers need to put more effort into teaching the students better and helping them prepare for both internal and external examinations. If action is not taken now, we risk raising a generation of students who lack concern for their education. And show little or no regard for learning. This could lead to a future generation that is utterly unprepared and a potential disaster for the country.
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