Mr Oladele Oluremi, Cross River Branch Controller of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) has blamed parents and guardians over the spate of poor academic performances of their wards in the country.
Oluremi stated this at a pre-varsity forum titled ‘Admission Processing: Laying a Solid Foundation,’ on Saturday in Calabar.
The symposium was organised by the Deeper Life Schools Outreach in collaboration with WAEC and the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
Represented by Mr Aderibigbe Adeniyi, the Head of Result and Certificate Department of the Council, Oluremi noted that many parents contributed to their children poor performances by aiding malpractice which in-turn made them lazy.
He alleged that parents pestered officials of the Council to change grades of their wards after they had written the examination and performed poorly.
“It is sad that when you go to the examination venues, you see as many parents as the number of students writing the examination.
“Many of them even stay outside with phones to send answers to their children who have smuggled phones into the examination halls.
“For you to excel, as a student preparing for an external examination, you need to be ready by reading your books and refusing to procrastinate.
“You need to read wide and deep, practice with past question papers and ensure you get appropriate instructions from the WAEC platform,” he said.
Oluremi advised WAEC candidates to visit its website: www.waeconline.org.ng/elearning, to enable them to learn and excel in their examinations.
He also called on government at all level to improve the education infrastructure in their jurisdiction to make it easy for candidates to perform better in external examinations.
Also speaking, Mrs Ville Pius, the Cross River Coordinator of Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), said the administration of JAMB examination was made easier with the introduction of the Computer Based Test (CBT).
Pius admonished prospective candidates to ensure that they choose institutions where they have comparative advantage known as catchment areas.
She added some courses in the tertiary institutions are quite competitive in the country and counselled candidates who could not secure admission to opt for different courses that are close to their initial choices rather than waiting for another academic year.
On her part, Dr.Rita Akpan, Director, Joint Universities Preliminary Examination Board (JUPEB), said students could actually gain admission into higher institutions in the country and overseas without writing JAMB by passing through JUPEB.
Akpan explained that the programme was set up by the government to help candidates who had written JAMB severally without successfully gaining admission into universities.
She disclosed that JUPEB offer a one year programme where students were taught and given admission into 200 level of any university of their choice.
The director noted that the students were required to pass the examination and submit a Direct Entry (DE) form to universities or institutions of their choice.
“Instead of sitting at home, pick a JUPEB form and start somewhere, you can also use the certificate to gain admission in other places because our certificate is recognized even outside Nigeria,” she said.
Also commenting, Prof. Godfred Ozumba, the Cross River Campus Coordinator of the Deeper Life Bible Church, admonished the participants to rely on God and read their books, stressing that if God didn’t build a nation, the efforts of men would have been in vain.
