Beyond sponsoring public exam forms

When I see a public official or politician deciding to 'empower' his
people by sponsoring their public examinations (SSCE/UTME) forms, I
regard such as a misplaced priority. Education promotion is always
important but some gaps are still left unfilled.

You may not agree with me. Just take a look at this. What happens
before the exam to prepare such candidates? What becomes of them after
they pass or fail? Will that politician do anything for them
afterwards?

You can guess that after paying for the exams, the beneficiaries are
likely abandoned. There is the issue of those who would see the 'free
money' as an opportunity not to take their studies seriously. They end
up failing since no adequate preparation was even made to coach them
properly ahead of their exams.

Beyond that, the ones who strive on their own and excel have the
hurdles of exorbitant tuition to cross. That's especially if they're
not well guided in terms of what school to choose. Many federal
universities are the cheapest and the top best. Thus, candidates
should be advised to choose one of such as most state and private
tertiary institutions charge exorbitantly.

Sponsors of candidates to write public examinations need to rethink
how they spend their funds. Their spendings and efforts should be
directed rather to improving the quality of education students
receive. Adequate teacher welfarism and training would be a way to
start.

Rather than just spending money to sponsor the entire exam for each
candidate, an option may be to fund a part of it for registration and
leave the rest of funding to the candidate. People value what they
strive for than what they get on a golden platter.

We may want to replicate the Katsina style too. The government there
stopped sponsoring 'free forms' for all SSCE candidates last year and
replaced it with a refunding measure. It however encouraged their
parents to source funds while ensuring that the students were well
prepared for the exams. The condition for getting a refund was that
you pass the exams with the minimum required standards for not less
than 5 credits including Mathematics and English.

Without a conducive learning condition for both teachers and students,
the monies devoted to sponsoring candidates for public exams would
just turn out largely as wastage. The philanthropy should extend to
equipping the school labs and libraries, spending on extra coaching
for the students while setting in motion a sustainable way of funding
those candidates' education.

Rather than paying just for the exams, the sponsors may as well equip
these candidates and their parents/guardians through skill acquisition
and trade so that they would have little or no course to keep waiting
funding as education progresses. We appreciate those already paying
for WAEC, NECO and JAMB form but they have to do beyond that.

Abdussalam Amoo is passionate about education. He blogs at EduCeleb.com