7 February 2008
editorial
The refusal of the Cross River State government to enroll her secondary school students for NECO examination or recognize its certificate for admission into state-owned tertiary institutions has brought the national examination body under the spotlight.
It has equally alerted stake holders to the alarming forms of malpractices perpetrated in the conduct of examinations at all levels of our educational system. The Cross River State commissioner for Education, Prof. Offiong Offiong, explained that the rejection was because the certificate of the examination body is below the state's benchmark.
It is important to emphasize that the loss of credibility in certificates is not peculiar to NECO examinations but is also characteristic of results issued by other national examination bodies including the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB), and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). Just like corruption, examination malpractice has permeated the entire educational system in Nigeria. Government functionaries, school authorities, invigilators, examiners, parents and students are all guilty of the iniquitous trend of examination malpractice. The Nigerian Senior Secondary School Examination (SSCE) is worse hit by this menace.
Examination malpractice in Nigeria has not only attained a frightening proportion but appears to have become increasingly more sophisticated where parents buy question papers from examination bodies or bank officials entrusted with the safe-keeping of the question papers. Multiple registrations by candidates is another form of calculated attempt to carry out examination malpractice. Reports have also shown that female candidates have been found to have enclosed their photographs in their examination scripts with self addressed envelopes indicating willingness to accept invitation from examiners as a form of inducement.
Syndicates also arrange 'special' centers for candidates with the active connivance of officials from examination bodies. These 'special' centers enjoy the patronage of corrupt school administrators and examination officers. These syndicates, which exist in almost every part of the country, have made it easy for candidates to acquire Senior School Certificate (SSC) without necessarily entering the examination hall, because mercenaries write the examination for such candidates.
This explains why many students refuse to write their SSCE in the schools they attend, preferring to register and write the examination in schools where their 'success' is guaranteed. They pay huge sums to school administrators or examination officers to cheat in the examination hall. Many private schools invest huge sums of money, to sponsor examination malpractices with a view to attaining high percentage pass at credit level in such examinations as the SSCE and the JSCE (Junior School certificate Examination).
Alarmed by the spate of examination malpractices, JAMB, in 2001, introduced variations in question numerations from candidate to candidate sitting for the same matriculation examination. That year, candidates' performance in the University Matriculation Examination (UME) was very poor. But the syndicates devised other means to beat JAMB's innovation with the connivance of JAMB officials. The Post-UME test introduced by universities in the country was informed by the unreliability of the matriculation examination conducted by JAMB.
Examination malpractice has attained an incredible proportion in Nigeria. At the University of Abuja, for instance, 41 out of the 44 students expelled in September 2007 were for examination offences. Examination malpractice is a threat to the quality of education in our country. The fight against this problem calls for the collective resolution of examination bodies, school administrators, examination officials, invigilators, the police, bank officials, examiners, parents, and students themselves, to wage a total war against examination malpractices.
Parents must stop financing the purchase of question papers for their children and wards, but encourage them to work harder. Examination bodies should stop concession posting of examination invigilators and supervisors. They should effect an upward review of remunerations for invigilators, supervisors and examiners to forestall any temptation to be involved in examination malpractice. Government must enforce the 21 years imprisonment sanction decreed in 1984 for examination malpractices, to secure the integrity of examinations and the nation's education system. We believe that unless there is concerted action, we are likely to have a greater percentage of our graduates, at all levels, unable to defend or justify the qualification they claim to have.
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Nigerian is always interested in prophylactic measures instead of causative measures. Have they ever give it a second thought their insistence on recognising paper certificates and not the intellect? Or perhaps have they for once realised that survival have becomes a means to an end? The very day a policeman will take his eyes off bribe, the very day a politician will not see a political post as a means of survival that will be the day the problem will stop. Those calling for the eradication of the scourge knows how to tackle it. The atrocities perpetrated in and outside halls is lesser than the one perpetrated inside these examination bodies. Let them remove the log in their eyes before coming out to remove the little in the eyes of some people. Can a poorman's son commit the crime? it is those who believe that Nigeria belongs to them are the main culprits. If they want to curb the trend, they must start from the top and remove the immunity clause from anybody's head then the real war shall begin.