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Why Academic Standards Keep Falling

Why Academic Standards Keep Falling

Sierra Leone is no longer the Athens of West Africa as, over the years, academic standards have dropped drastically due to a combination of factors prominent among which is the high level of corruption that now characterizes our educational system.

The dramatic fall of our academic standards is evidenced by the mass failure that now obtains in public examinations mainly the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). It is also being clearly manifested by some of the very poor quality graduates our universities now produce.

The fall in academic standards can largely be attributed to illegal admissions, grade-selling and other forms of academic corruption now plaguing our schools and colleges. The problem has been compounded by the apparent negligent treatment given to primary education as evident in the woeful failure of government to pay promptly the fees subsidies to primary schools.

It has become a usual thing in our educational institutions for teachers or lecturers to sell grades to pupils and students; this is no longer a secret. Some grades are even exchanged for sex. Moreover, many money-hungry heads of educational institutions have degenerated to the corrupt level of admitting failed pupils or students just to fatten their pockets.

Even though the Education Ministry has made it a rule that only pupils who clearly pass the BECE should be admitted into the senior secondary school, some defiant and commercially-oriented principals are hard at work admitting failed pupils into the senior school system.

Consequently, there has been a low level of intellectualism while academic mediocrity has taken predominance. If we are serious about development, then we should try to revive our educational sector and restore high educational standards as education is the key to the development of any nation. A nation can never develop beyond its mentality.

By Joseph Milton Lebbie

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  • Singapore was 60 this month it boasts of very high standards in education because its leaders were educated. Examine how that sounds in the context of our country. You qualify if you are a particular tribe or can bend to corruption. How can we reverse this disease in our system that rewards low standards and excludes merit. We must resolve to end corruption that is the root of all our evils and would cure all our ills

    10th August 2015

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