allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Examination Malpractice - Who Takes the Greater Blame? (Page 1 of 1)

Examination malpractice has been defined as any act of omission or commission, which compromises the reliability of any assessment or evaluation system. In the education system, it makes it impossible to use the result of tests and examinations to determine the level of skills and competence of candidates. Unfortunately it has become a national disaster. It is no longer news to hear Examination Bodies cancel thousands of results due to one form of cheating or the other. In some cases the entire examination center could be cancelled for widespread cheating during examinations.

A recent survey has revealed that in the last five years Nigeria has lost as much as N107 billion to examination fraud perpetrated through public exits examinations. Similarly lecturers in public tertiary institutions extorted about N50 billion from students by selling fake examination question papers and fees charged for aiding exam malpractices in 2006. The street value of revenue from examination fraud was also said to have increased to N35 billion between 2002 and 2006, while public examination bodies cancelled 2, 143, 860 results due to examination fraud.

The reports based on survey conducted in the 36 states of federation and Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory are glaring indications that the evil trend is gradually building the nation into a criminalised society.

Educationists have expressed worries that planting seeds of unethical and criminal values in the fertile minds of youths, creates avenues for breeding future generation of criminals, characterised by serial corruption.

It has become more worrisome that teachers at all levels, school authorities and other stakeholders have also been indicted for their roles in a large-scale examination malpractices conducted by public examination bodies like the West African Examination Council (WAEC), National Examination Council (NECO),Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), as well as the National Board for Technical Education (NABTEB).

Apart from invigilators involvement, parents have become more desperate than ever in the pursuit of their wards' education that they go out of their way to arrange for mercenaries to write examinations for their children. People have continued to wonder whether such parents have lost their moral compass. If parents who should inculcate discipline and hard work, have thrown all that to the wind and are now at the fore-front of perpetrating the evil of examination fraud, one wonders what would become of these children when they become adults. As some people may ask, what legacy are they leaving behind for the future generation, if they prefer the shortcuts, by discouraging children to utilise their brains, which would mould and prepare them into responsible adults, and possibly leaders. Students no longer burn the midnight candle or take any extra effort to come out in flying colours because 'necessary arrangements' would have been made by parents with the connivance of invigilators to ensure a 'sound' certificate for their children. It is not a surprise anymore for students to change from their school of origin, to schools and environments conducive for all forms of examination fraud. They have not only lost confidence in themselves, but are in a state of hopelessness because they already have mind set that unless you go through the short cuts, you cannot pass examinations.

It is no longer a matter of indiscretion involving students. Examination fraud has metamorphosed into organised crime controlled by syndicates with links in Ministries of Education, examination Board and educational institutions across the length and breath of Nigeria. Supervisors, invigilators and examiners are not left out of the fraud. These group, it has been noted, actually constitute a major part of the syndicate rings extorting money from students well in advance; with assurances given to supply solved questions in examination halls. They compromise their job not only to look away while cheating is going on, but also become major actors.

The corrosion of moral fibre of the society, the massive break down of ethical standards and the pervasive culture of fraud and corruption are said to have their roots in examination malpractice. What perpetrators have not paused to ponder about is what will become of the society, when future leaders acquire certificates they cannot defend. What becomes of patients in hospitals if quarks over flood the health sector. How many more plane crashes will the Aviation sector record when mediocre are in charge. What will a teacher with empty brain deliver to students in class? This is just to mention a few sensitive sectors. Undoubtedly, the result would be a total breakdown of everything Nigeria stands for. To take such negative values into leadership and professional positions is fraught with disastrous consequences for the nation.

Besides, societal breakdown, parents are also said to have suffered great financial loss in recent times, estimated N21 billion annually. This is attributable to cancellation of results. Cancellation means one year loss and money would be required to fund the repeat of the session/examination in terms of tuitions, books, fees, traveling, feedings, among others. Thousands of innocent candidates have fallen victims of outright cancellation of results, where the entire centre is involved, leading to frustration and loss of one or several academic years. For no fault of theirs they lose not only money but precious time to examination fraudsters.

In 2007 total of 342 schools and 262 individuals were blacklisted by the Federal Ministry of Education for perpetrating examination fraud, following the report of Exam Ethics and Campus Friendly Project on public examinations. Some ministry officials were also indicted, but unfortunately have remained untouchable. The teachers and examination officials have neither been sanctioned or relieved of their duties to serve as a deterrent to others warming up to join the trend.

Examination bodies like JAMB has come up with commendable innovation to curtail the trend by producing question papers in sets according to subject type, yet candidates cleverly devised means of outsmarting the Board.

The question that needed an urgent answer is, why has examination malpractice continued to thrive when the consequences are so glaring. The answer is not far fetched. Experience has shown that examination fraud is thriving because of lack of enforcement of relevant laws and adequate sanctions against fraudsters. A cross section of Nigerians has attributed this to have encouraged a culture of impunity in the perpetration of examination fraud. That is why syndicates operate openly and brazenly. They are not afraid of arrests. Of all the arrests made, no single conviction has been reported by the law enforcement agencies. Neither the police nor stakeholders in the sector have taken decisive action in a bid to tackle the menace that has turned the entire education system into chaos.

Those who have the interest of Nigeria at heart have opined that if nothing drastic was done to stop this ungodly act, generation unborn would be worse for it.

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