Some Kwara Secondary School Students Cannot Read And Write, Group Raises Alarm

A leading Pro-Democracy group, Kwara Must Change has uncovered several secondary school students in public schools in the state that could not read or write.

The group also noted that further investigation shows that there exist secondary school students that could not identify basic alphabets.

In a statement by Convener of Kwara Must Change, Abdulrazaq Hamzat, the group said that some of the recently recruited teachers who are currently battling with teaching students across various schools uncovered this development and reached out to the group for advice.

According to Hamzat, the transparent recruitment process for teachers in the state has had many positive effects on the education sector and one of such positive development is the revelation that there are some senior secondary school students, some of whom are preparing for senior secondary school examination but couldn’t read or write.

“We were surprised when some of the recently recruited teachers reported this to us, but further investigation shows that these are not isolated cases. There exist a significant number of students in a number of schools across the state that are currently affected by this challenge” Hamzat said.

Kwara Must Change explained that “the troublesome of these teachers are facing is that, how can they teach students preparing for senior secondary school examination, when the students can neither read nor write, some of whom cannot write basic alphabets.

“One of the teachers informed Kwara Must Change that the only solution is to start everything from the scratch, assuming that you have to start by teaching them basic alphabets”

Explaining further, It was noted that, students facing such challenges wouldn’t speak out. You will assume they couldn’t understand the current topic or subject, but proper attention over time by some of the recently recruited teachers have shown that the challenges students face are fundamental challenges, which is mostly due to poor foundation.

“It is almost impossible to teach a student that couldn’t read or write, unless you begin by teaching them the basics, which is not part of the curriculum of their class”, adding that, there is a need to identify such students, do a thorough brush up, before proceeding to teach them other things.

Kwara Must Change is therefore calling on education authorities in the state to investigate the revelation to address this fundamental challenge. The group also call for thorough needs assessment of students and teachers in public school with the aim of identifying the education challenges of students and teachers in the state.