When fifty-five thousand children fail, who else has failed?

A Nunyãdume Reflection on BECE and the Education System In Nunyãdume , children travelled for nine years before reaching the gate of the Senior House. Along the road stood teachers, headteachers, supervisors, inspectors, curricula, examinations, ministries and policies. Some children struggled with words from the early years. Others wrestled with numbers. Yet year after year, the bell rang, they were promoted, and the journey continued. Then, in the ninth year, came the Great Examination. One morning, the town crier announced: “About fifty-five thousand children cannot enter the Senior House because they failed Mathematics or English. ” The village was disturbed. Some blamed the children. Others blamed parents, mobile phones, and falling standards. But the Old Teacher asked: “When did fifty-five thousand children first begin to fall behind? ” Nobody answered.

“And when we discovered it, what did we do? ” The courtyard became quiet. For suddenly, it was not only the children who were being examined. Nunyãdume itself had entered the examination hall. The Stammering Linguist then remembered a famous photograph from a distant land. It showed a desperately vulnerable child on the ground, with a vulture nearby. The photograph received worldwide recognition, but it also provoked an enduring moral question about the responsibility of the person behind the camera towards the suffering being recorded. “Our examinations are excellent cameras,” the Linguist said. “They can photograph educational weakness. They can tell us who obtained One, who obtained Nine, who may proceed and who must remain outside. ” Then he asked: “But if, after nine years, our greatest achievement is accurately measuring that fifty-five thousand children have not acquired essential competencies, have we educated…