Reuben Buhari
27 May 2008
Lagos — Perhaps, an opinion poll worth conducting would be one that asks Nigerians whether they have ever indulged in any form of examination malpractices. It may not be out of place to predict that most answers might be in the affirmative.
That is the pit that the country is gradually sliding into if something is not done to curb the silent pandemic called examination malpractice.
So common and widespread it has become, that secondary schools now willingly organise it so that their students can come out in flying colours. Some parents too have been known to deliberately register their children in schools known as 'success centres' or give such centres money to purchase question papers before the day of the examination.
A case in point for this is the on-going SSCE, organised by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC). Kaduna, like most states across the country, is guilty of what the students call expo, choks, scud missiles, boji-boji, aljanu or grenade, they all basically refer to bringing in foreign materials into the examination halls. These have become so common that telling an SSCE candidate to write his examination, without help and that cheating is a crime makes the 'Adviser' look like someone who has just landed from Mars.
When this reporter told an 18-year-old girl about to write Mathematics in the SSCE that cheating in any exams carries a 21-year prison term, she laughed and then smugly replied, "na today we dey hear that kind talk?"
THISDAY investigations revealed that certain secondary schools in Kaduna have become 'centres of excellence', where one can register for your WAEC or NECO SSCE and determine the number of credits one wants, with full assurance that this will happen at the end of the day. It is so rampant in private schools which continue to spring up on every passing day to fill the vacuum created by the structural and academic collapsed of public schools. That is the reason why many students refuse to take the SSCE in their schools, but go to register as external candidates in others schools where 'their success is guaranteed' after paying exorbitant fees, tagged 'cooperation fees' or 'settlement fees'.
A very popular school in Barnawa and another one in Bakin Ruwa, close to Tudun Wada, among so many others within Kaduna town are actively engaged in pure cases of exam malpractices in the ongoing SSCE exams. Investigations show that the school in Barnawa, gave its final year students and a good number of external candidates the option of paying either N11, 000 for the SSCE registration or N13,500 which will ensure that all students of the school come out with nothing less than six credits. Not unexpectedly, all the students paid the N13, 5000. Those who even don't want to physically come and write the exams, especially among the external students were told to pay N20, 000, which some paid.
With that amount paid, once question paper comes to the school, it is solved by the teachers, quickly photocopied and distributed table by table to all the more than 250 students in the school hall. Also noteworthy is the fact that textbooks and any other material have free access into the hall.
In addition to this, the candidates have been told to bring N100 (for photocopy) every day that they have a paper explained by the school, is used for the photocopying. Any one who refuses to pay does not get a copy of the solved answers. All these are done with the full cooperation of the external examiners that come with the paper and the school proprietress, who even helps in distributing the solved answers. The school gateman is also in on it because he has been stationed outside the school and told to be extra vigilant and report any suspicious stranger that might visit the school
Author of Unslept Dreams and Winds of Life, Saintmoses Eromosele said exam malpractice had long graduated from the normal giraffing at neighbours' work, using key points notes or text books or copying on sheets of papers referred to as 'microchips', or copying on desks also known as 'desktop publishing', to a more advanced and more organized system of buying question from examination bodies or corrupt bank officials entrusted with the safe-keeping of the question papers.
He also noted that syndicates have been able to arrange 'special' centres for their 'special' candidates where they enrol for the exam with the connivance of examination bodies for the easy flow of malpractice. These miracle centres, according to him, enjoy the patronage of some corrupt school administrators and examination officers. These syndicates have made it very easy for somebody to acquire the Senior School Certificate without necessarily entering the examination hall as mercenaries abound to impersonate the candidates.
Just recently, the English Paper in the on-going WAEC SSCE was cancelled and rescheduled because it had leaked, following an armed attacked on the vehicle conveying the questions. What is amazing is the speed at which the questions travel from state to state, because it was said that most states in the country had that question paper.
Head of the Agric Engineering Department at the Kaduna Polytechnic, Mr. Johnson Tsuzom, who has lectured for the past 26, regretted that, "In those days, up to the late 80s, students were more committed to their studies and more disciplined than the present crop of students.
"In somebody came in with three credits and two passes in those days, you were sure that he made it. But today you find people who have distinction or seven credits in their SSCE with nothing 'upstairs'. We have seen people coming in with alphas in Mathematics, Chemistry, and Physics among others, but failing Kadpoly's pre- National Diploma examination. So you begin to wonder how they got that kind of result in the first place. That is what examination malpractice is doing to the system. A good number of secondary schools indulge in it for their students to get good grades.
"Some six years ago, a popular school here in Kaduna went into expo. It got the question papers and started coaching its students because it wanted to score 100 per cent in the examination. WAEC eventually got wind of the leakage and changed the papers and the students ended up failing woefully", Tsuzom said.
He blamed examination malpractice for the falling standard of education in the country saying, "Many students are not willing to study hard. They are just desperate about acquiring certificates. There is a need to overhaul the educational system to address some of these things because if things continue like this, we are heading for a disaster. Examination malpractice is destroying our educational system. It is eroding the credibility of our certificates. More needs to be done to check it.
"Time was when a Nigerian went abroad to study and from his written English and his knowledge of Mathematics and whatever, they knew that Nigerians were very sound, but much of those days are gone. Now many universities abroad subject Nigerians who go there to study to further examination before they determine where to place them, if they are admitted.
He described the menace as an ethical issue and recommended that, "We need to tackle it as a societal problem. Nigerians must resolve to fight it. Families and religious bodies should start campaigning against examination malpractice. Those caught should be made to face the wrath of the law, no matter who they are."
In a paper titled, 'Examination Rules and Handling of Examination Malpractices Cases, at a recent in-house capacity-building workshop within the school, the Dean, School of Administrative Studies, Kaduna Polytechnic, Dr. Shehu Adamu observed that examination malpractices continue to soar because the Nigeria's educational system still retains some colonial heritage that stresses the pursuit of white collar jobs, making students desperate to get the certificates for such jobs.
This, according him has further led to rote learning replacing intelligence understanding of what is being taught in schools, resulting in examination malpractices. Not only that, education in Nigeria has become impersonal and its management directed more at cost saving devices, rather than at providing education for useful living.
He therefore recommended that the education policy makers should completely de-emphasise the rote learning and emphasise intelligent understanding and craftsmanship. By so doing, he reasoned, the pressure on white collar jobs would be reduced.
Apart from the falling standard of education, the country incurs huge financial losses. According to the Examination Ethics Project (EEP), a non governmental organisation, the country lost about N190 billion to poor examination ethics in the last five years. It also estimated the street value of revenue from examination fraud at N35 billon. This development, according to EEP, is largely responsible for the falling standard of education and the increasing evidence that graduating students of the nation's tertiary institutions lack the actual skills and competence to defend their certificates. It is instructive that the Nigerian Employers Consultative Association (NECA) has at various times complained that the nation's graduates are poorly prepared for the workplace.
Available reports from EEP indicate that public examination bodies in the country have cancelled a total of about 2, 143, 860 results due to examination malpractices and spent no less than N50 million on funding the re-sitting of these examinations. These funds wasted on repeating examinations could have made a difference were they channeled into the under-funded education sector.
People cheat during exams with impunity due to poor enforcement of the law. It has therefore been recommended that the Examination Malpractice Decree No. 33 of 1999, which lists 20 exam offences, a fine of N100, 000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years for a person less than 18 years caught engaging in examination malpractice, and four years imprisonment without option of a fine for principals, teachers, supervisors, invigilators, examiners, agents or employees of examination bodies caught in the same act; be enforced.
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