Head of the Nigeria National Office of West African
Examinations Council,WAEC, Mr. Charles Eguridu has stated
that making Mathematics a compulsory subject for students
seeking admission in tertiary institutions is unfair, when the
candidate’s course of study in the university has nothing to
do with Mathematics.

Eguridu who made this statement against the backdrop of
the 29.37 per cent WASSCE candidates who obtained five
credits and above in Mathematics and English Language
said: “It will be unfair to judge or determine students’
performance in examination based on Mathematics and
English Language.”

Answering questions from journalists at WAEC corporate
office, Yaba, Lagos after the release of results last Thursday
Eguridu explained that as a student of Theatre Arts, you
have no business learning quadratic equation. According to
him; “Somebody who wants to read Yoruba in the university,
and the institution is demanding for Mathematics is an issue
because he does not need Mathematics to perform well in
Yoruba. I do not think Mathematical ability is necessary for
success in every endeavour of live.”

In all his years, he reiterated that, he is yet to see where
mathematical ability is necessary in all areas of endeavour.

‘’Those who play football and can score goals, or those who
can sing very well, I am yet to see how passing Mathematics
made them successful. For English Language, I agree
because it is the means of communication, but for Maths, it
should not compulsory for some studies,’’ he added.
The HNO who took a swipe at those condemning WAEC for
mass failure based on Mathematics and English Language
said: ‘’This is a private candidate exam. Preharps a candidate
registers for Biology, Maths and English, if he does not write
Maths and English and you use the population of those who
wrote Maths and English to ascertain the percentage of
success, the statistics will be incorrect.

“In a situation where a candidate registers for eight or nine
subjects and you isolate two subjects to ascertain his overall
performance, is unfair. The purpose of education is not to
pass examination but to equip children for life.’’

Double registrations

Eguridu further maintained; “Nigerians need to go back and
read the national policy on education. It is not envisaged
that every child who entered primary school will end up a
university professor. We expect that after the first six years
of primary school, then the first three, senior high school.

After this stage the results will determine the route such
student will take, either to technical education, college of
education, school of nursing, polytechnic or university.’’
On the drop of candidates that registered for the
examination, Eguridu heaps the reasons on effiency of
WAEC. He provided that WAEC has made it impossible for
candidates to have double registrations. In the past, he
pointed out, people asked candidates to register them in
one centre and go to another centre to re-register. He
insisted that with the introduction of biometric features, if
you try to register twice, it will not be possible.

For those who criticized the walk in candidate initiative,
Eguridu said: “Nigeria is not an island, it is a country that is
advancing like other countries. In Singapore for example,
people will write their exams when they are ready. A
situation where a candidate needs a credit to advance in his
studies and he has to wait for another one year cannot be
justified. We have no apology for this, we have done it and
we will do it again.

“If a candidate wants to register on the day of examination,
we register him and ensure that the registration properly
done. We will capture biometric details, exam fees will be
paid and the candidate will be allowed to write with those
who registered before.”

On the issue of wrong pictures of some candidates, Eguridu
heaped the blame on school owners,explaining that WAEC’s
registration portal has been designed in such a way that it
works on information uploaded by schools into the server.
That not withstanding, WAEC has to give them a second
chance for the information to be uploaded correctly.
However, from the next examination, he stated that WAEC’s
upgraded systems will reject such flawed entries.

In spite of this facilities, some school authority do not take
time to cross check the information uploaded to our data
based.

His words: “If a school authority assignments a picture on
wrong candidate, they should be held responsible. ‘’We have
a situation where instead of uploading the candidate picture, they just put a flower pot. At times, one candidate’s picture will be dominant in the picture of some schools. Beginning from next examination, our upgraded system will reject such entries.’’


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/12/maths-ability-not-necessary-every-course-study-waec-boss/

Chisos! !! mehn dis guys no go fit chop chicken oo

Chai,,omo ladoke owo loke ooo,,na wa dem oo all this management student sha,,yahoo yahoo; na dem they there,,em girls b olosho's, now dem don join to dey steal

Hmm...Good for them.

This should serve as a lesson to some stùpid Nigerian girls that love bad boys.

A word is enough for the wise- only if they'd choose a guy based on what he has got upstairs.

Na part of Christmas hustle

Very true. But for now better pass it or forget admission

I get ur point sir but what of other situation and life after university. Apptitude test of companies and multinational organisations. As I see it,u must at least be good in mathematics to be able to pass their test. The believe is that ability to know mathematics bring about sharp mind and effectiveness. Mathematics is inevitable for any course so far u wish to compete wt the best. As a mathematician and statistician, there is no situation I find myself that I cannot cope. That is why I always make sure that anybody I come in contact wt is good in mathematics. So anyone saying mathematics is not for some couses is only playing wt fire.