allAfrica.com: Nigeria: WAEC and Exam Leakages (Page 1 of 1)

Those who nurse the hope that the nation will soon get back on the right track may yet wait a little longer as the signs on the wall do not suggest that even the next generation of leaders are imbibing the right lessons on integrity.

If there was any doubt to this assertion, the scandal of massive irregularities that surrounded this year's Senior School Certificate Examination organized by the West African Examination Council, should have dispelled it.

Increasingly, the twin virtues of merit and honour are fast vanishing from our society. Even the young are not spared this malaise. There is now a culture of desperation that side-steps hardwork and merit. Everybody wants the short-cut to success. And that is why year after year, the WAEC keeps having a nightmare trying to organise its examinations, especially in Nigeria. How so sad it is to admit that examination malpractice has always been associated with public examinations in Nigeria. This is more prevalent in qualifying examinations conducted by the WAEC. Progressively the malaise is getting worse, with what has happened in the past fortnight topping the chart. Not even the scandalous 'Expo 77' of 1977 could compare with the bizarre situation recorded in the on-going exercise. It is a sad commentary on the efficiency of WAEC that 31 years after that shameful outing, the hitherto respected exam body has not perfected ways of organising more successful examinations. This year the armed hijack of vehicles carrying question papers was introduced to the entire scandal.

So bad and rampant was this year's leakage that the papers were literally being hawked on Lagos streets days before the papers were due for use in the examination halls. For any fee, candidates could buy these papers, prepare the answers and walk into the exam halls and copy prepared answers and submit same. WAEC may have felt so dazed by the degree of the irregularity that it has ordered five of the papers (English Language 1, Commerce, Physics 2, Government, and Mathematics) cancelled. Worse perhaps is the fear that even when the cancelled papers will be re-written, there is no guarantee that they will still not leak. Indeed, exam malpractice has become an organized crime syndicate involving a consortium of students, education ministry officials, officials of examination boards, educational institutions, supervisors and invigilators, the police, the examiners and even parents. There are parents who not only encourage their children to cheat in exams, but also go in search of leaked papers and procure them at any cost for their children. The practice has become as worrisome as it is shameful. We are gradually producing future leaders who cheat their way through in life. Little wonder that elections can hardly be free and fair, nor can public servants stop stealing from the coffers.

One practice that has exacerbated the ill trend is the idea of 'Special Centres.' They are centres believed to enjoy loose invigilation thereby permitting candidates to engage in unwholesome acts that ultimately make them pass in flying colours. Indeed, the 'specialness' of such centres is the license to cheat unrestricted and unpunished. Most private schools are the worst culprits as they use the result of such fraudulent examinations to cajole students and parents that they indeed offer quality teaching and learning. But it's all a hoax. That explains why often, candidates are in a desperate search for such centres, especially in cities. All of these account for the ever increasing volume of results yearly canceled by examination bodies. The amount of money lost by parents and state governments to this social cancer is better imagined. In 2006, for instance, 410,000 results were cancelled in exams organized by WAEC, NECO, JAMB and NABTEB. To put it mildly, this is embarrassing.

Most students are hardly interested in studying to pass their exams. They believe that they can always buy good results. The immediate consequence of this is the production of ill-baked persons who cannot pass any serious test in integrity, honour, merit, diligence, honesty etc etc. Sadly too, results from WAEC may soon start suffering credibility crisis.

It is regrettable that all this has happened despite the existence of a law (then a military Decree) prescribing a 21-year-jail term for examination offenders. This is possibly because of the low rate of prosecution of offenders.

To stem the tide of examination malpractice, there is need for stringent prosecution of culprits. More importantly, however, moral education should return to our schools and made compulsory. Parents must also take seriously the inculcation of good morals in their children. The shame culture must return.

WAEC and other exam bodies must, for their part, go beyond the cancellation of results and devise leak-proof ways of organising credible examinations. In the same vein society and employers must also begin to de-emphasise paper qualification as a way of reducing the desperation to acquire certificates.

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