Anambra State in South-East Nigeria has emerged the overall best in the 2014 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). This is a repeat of the feat recorded last year and unmistakable evidence that the education reforms embarked upon by the state in the last couple of years has continued to yield the desired results.

The official WAEC result shows that Anambra State (65.92 per cent), Abia State (58.52 per cent), and Edo State (57.82) came out tops.

At the reverse side of the coin, eight out of the 36 states in the country scored less than 10%. They include Adamawa, Jigawa, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi, Gombe, Bauchi and Yobe.

The percentage of the total number of candidates that obtained a minimum of five credits, including English Language and General Mathematics, was 31.21 per cent as against 30.90 per cent, 37.66 per cent and 36.57 per cent for the 2011, 2012 and 2013 WASSCE examinations. This, according to WAEC, implies that the average performance of the candidates in the May/June 2014 WASSCE was lower than that of the 2013.

Commenting on the feat by Anambra State, education experts from and outside the state linked it to the courageous return of schools, hitherto thought as impossible, to the Missionaries in 2010 by the former Governor, Mr. Peter Obi, who thereafter continued to pay the salaries of tutorials and non-tutorials staff as well as provided direct funding to the missionaries that enabled them to rehabilitate the schools and provide learning materials and facilities.

News Express recalls that Minister of State for Education, Barr. Nyeso Wike, predicted what is happening in Anambra when he visited the state under Governor Obi, during the launching of the distribution of 25,000 computers, 450 numbers of 50 KVA generators and 500 school buses to schools in the state. Commending Obi for investing heavily on education by judicious use of federal and state monies to rehabilitate schools in the state, Wike had advised that Obi’s policies be replicated throughout the country.

The Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr. Suleman Dikko, had at another event, during presentation of cheques totaling over N1 billion to public and missionary schools for the provision of infrastructure, expressed surprise at the transformation of schools in the state. He was particularly delighted by the provision of computers, internet connectivity, provision of sick bays, libraries, buses and generators, among others. Dr. Dikko had said that with what he witnessed, Anambra would soon become the leading light in education in the country.

•File photo shows candidates writing WASSCE.