16 August, 2011, Sweetcrude, Abuja – Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Austen Oniwon, is worried over the dwindling standard of education in Nigeria. He said yesterday that 80 per cent of job seekers failed the corporation’s recruitment test.
Group General Manager (GGM), Group Public Affairs of the NNPC, Dr. Levi Ajuonuma, who represented him at the grand finale of the 2011 NNPC annual quiz competition in Abuja, called for a review of the nation’s education system due to the mass failure at ordinary level examinations.
But, the Educational Adviser to the United States, Mallam Dalhatu Hamza, told students that the US has earmarked $2.7 million as scholarship to brilliant Nigerians students this year. Hamza challenged the students to face their studies squarely, adding that handsome rewards were available for excellence.
On the declining standard of education, the GMD further said: “The recent mass failure of candidates in WAEC and NECO exams nationwide makes the call for an urgent surgical review of our schools system more urgent than envisaged.
“Also our current experience in the ongoing recruitment exercise where candidates with the so-called 2:1 certificates posted less than 20 per cent score line in some cases has heightened our apprehension about the lack of functionality in our education format. Over dependence on certificates is not the best. Over 80 per cent of the candidates, who wrote the NNPC recruitment exams failed,” he added. He advised the students to tailor their careers towards valuable courses.
