CANDIDATES’ WEAKNESSES
Candidates’ weaknesses as reflected in their works included:
- Lack of Proper Understanding of the Demands of the Questions
- Lack of Proper Understanding of the Subject-matter
- Violation of Rubrics
- Mixing up of Questions/Improper Arrangement of Answers
- Cramming of Answers on the Same Page
- Poor grammatical Expression
- Lack of Understanding of Action Verbs
- Illegible Handwriting
- Illogical Presentation of Ideas
- Lack of Qualified Teachers
- Dearth of Standard Textbooks
Many candidates seem not to have comprehended the demands of the questions. For instance, most of them resorted to mere mentioning of points instead of giving detailed explanation of such points where required.
Many candidates did not understand the specifics of the subject matter which may be as a result of poor coverage of the curriculum.
Many candidates failed to adhere to the rubrics of the paper and therefore answered all questions from a section while neglecting answering questions from other sections.
Some candidates mixed up their responses to the questions they answered especially in questions with two parts (a) and (b). In such cases, answers were not sequentially arranged. At other times, candidate gave answers without indicating the questions being answered.
Allied with the above was the failure of candidates to read the instructions on the answer booklet properly which made some to cram all their answers in either one or two pages. Some candidates even wrote inside both margins of the answer booklet.
The tenses and grammar of most of the candidates were bad. They could hardly express themselves in simple correct statement even in situation where they seemed to know the demands of the question.
In most of the questions, candidates could not distinguish between action verbs such as mention, state, explain, highlight, outline, describe and so on, hence their inability to tackle the questions appropriately.
Some candidates wrote in illegible ways and bad handwriting which hindered examiners to decipher the words and meaning of what some candidates wrote. Wrong spellings coupled with poor expression of ideas and facts negatively affected the performance of a lot of candidates.
Some of candidates were unable to clearly explain the identified points and arrange them in a logical manner. A good number of them could not communicate their thoughts logically even when it seems they had the idea of the demands of the questions.
The candidates’ weaknesses could also be traced to the lack of qualified teachers of Civic Education who had good grasp of the substance of the subject. It is observed that candidates were not adequately equipped with necessary information and materials needed to do well in the subject.
It also observed that the poor performance of the candidates in the subject may not be unconnected to shortage of source materials such as good textbooks and teaching aids on the subject.