Forget the WAEC Scores:This Is What’s Really Killing Nigerian Education

Last week, the Lagos State Government announced that over 30,000 students failed their WAEC (West African Examination Council) exams in 2024. These were students in public secondary schools, fully sponsored by the government.

According to the Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Jamiu Alli-Balogun, during the 2025 Ministerial Press Briefing held on Thursday in Alausa, Ikeja, a total of 58,188 students were registered for the exams at the state’s expense. Out of this number, 31,596 students failed. That’s a 54.3% failure rate.

These students failed, despite the N1.58 billion the state spent to cover WAEC registration fees.

The commissioner, clearly disappointed, described the outcome as “unacceptable” and announced new efforts to address the decline. Among the responses is the Eko Learners’ Support Programme, launched on 14 January, aimed at aiding WASSCE and NECO candidates.

This programme will broadcast 320 lessons across 10 core subjects — English, Mathematics, and key sciences — via Lagos Television (LTV), YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter). It’s supposed to empower students through accessible digital learning, with each 30-minute episode forming a digital library available on demand.

Commissioner Alli-Balogun emphasized that the initiative is not only academic but also designed to foster self-expression through arts, music, sports, and drama. The goal is to create a “supportive ecosystem that promotes creativity, critical thinking, and personal growth.”

This Article Is Not Really About That News

I’m sure you’ve already seen the WAEC statistics splashed across the media. That’s surface stuff. The real issue is the death of education in Nigeria, and more importantly, how the average Nigerian, especially the young ones, views education.

There’s this thing I’ve noticed. It’s a dangerous mindset creeping in among young people today. I still get shocked when I hear some of them say things like “school na scam.” Even those who have access to education don’t take it seriously. They seem to believe that life is about blowing, about making millions out of nowhere.

Sleep, wake up, and boom. ₦50 million just lands in your account.
How? How do you think that happens?

This casual disregard for education is showing up everywhere. Just look at how the average Nigerian engages in arguments online. The conversations are shallow and often silly. There’s an alarming lack of critical thinking, logic, and structured reasoning. These are basic skills that any functioning educational system should instill.

It’s scary, honestly. If you need proof, just visit Facebook. That seems to be the unofficial headquarters of the Nigerian internet. You’ll see the cringe-worthy takes of people who passed through our schools. People who supposedly graduated, but sound like they were never taught to reason, reflect, or respectfully debate.

But let’s forget the students for a moment.

Let’s Focus on The Educators

Let’s talk about the teachers.

Because before you get carried away with blaming Gen Z or the “new generation,” remember this: the teachers themselves passed through the same broken system. What do you expect them to teach? If the foundation is weak, what happens to the building?

Please don’t forget that saying about not being able to give what you don’t have.

I can’t capture everything wrong with Nigerian education in one article. That would take a book.

 But it’s clear we urgently need to sit down, not just as policymakers, but as a society and look at education with fresh eyes. Not the usual half-hearted, reactionary press conferences or “panels” set up when a scandal breaks. I mean a serious, surgical, re-engineering of the system.

And not just reforms on paper.

We need flawless, ruthless implementation. No sentiment. No shortcuts. No noise.

Because only then can we build a country that is serious about real progress. I am refering to the type of progress where the citizens are educated enough to know better, demand better, and build better.

What Should Be Done? Actionable Recommendations:

1. Audit and Retrain Teachers: Start with the educators. Reassess qualifications, retrain where necessary, and remove those unfit to teach. A broken educator cannot build a whole student.
2. Introduce Nationwide Media Literacy & Critical Thinking Curriculum: Add mandatory classes that teach students how to reason, analyze, question, and argue respectfully. Teach them how to think, not just to memorize.
3. Reward Learning, Not Just Results: Shift from a test-centered system to a knowledge-centered one. Encourage creativity, curiosity, and competence. Celebrate academic effort, not just grades.
4. Create Mentorship and Skill-Based Alternatives: Not every student will be a scholar. Build parallel pathways that include vocational training, tech incubation, and mentorship in arts, crafts, and entrepreneurship. These should all still be grounded in discipline and structure.
5. Make Education Relatable to Real Life: Connect the curriculum to real Nigerian problems and opportunities. Make it about solutions, not just syllabuses. Teach things that matter. Things  like financial literacy, civic duty, digital tools, ethics.
6. Involve Parents and Communities: Rebuild the value of education from the home. Parents must be part of the ecosystem. They must see school as a priority, not an afterthought.

Until we do all this and be serious about it, the numbers will keep getting worse. And it won’t just be a WAEC statistic anymore. It will be a nation lost in ignorance, convinced that knowledge is a scam.

And there’s no amount of digital lessons or billion-naira budgets that can fix that.