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Nigerian Delegates
Nigerian Delegates
TAMING THE MENACE OF EXAMINATION MALPRACTICE
About this event: 4th World Youth Congress - Quebec City 2008

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Inside the school hall in a typical Nigerian examination centre, young men and women are seated with rapt attention as they listen to a middle aged, well built man, clutching a folder containing some sheets of paper. He is surrounded by other ladies and gentlemen numbering about five who apparently are waiting for the middle aged well built man to give the go-ahead to start the distribution of examination question papers and answer booklets. He clears his throat, pointing his fingers to nobody in particular as if sounding a warning to a recalcitrant child who refused to heed his mother’s scolding, ‘If you like, go ahead and cheat in this examination!” He blurts out ‘Remember that whosoever is caught in examination malpractice will face a 21 year imprisonment. It is the law.’ Inside the crowd of seated candidates waiting to take the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE), someone retorted, sarcastically “Na today?” implying that the threat was brutum fulmen, an empty threat. And the others giggled while the examination official that has been addressing the candidates tries to resist a frown.

This is the kind of ceremony that usually precedes examinations nowadays. Examination officials, invigilators, school authorities as the case maybe, drone the ears of candidates with sermons against exam malpractice. All the time, candidates pay attention, except occasional side talks and ensuing giggling. As the examination commences, candidates are seen making frantic efforts to outsmart each other in the exam malpractice that follows, on some occasions, the officials who had just finished sermonizing sadly participates in the easy flow of the malpractice.

Examination malpractice in Nigeria has attained a frightening but sophisticated proportion. It is a little short of being institutionalized. Efforts by governments at all levels and stakeholders in the educational sector to curtail the ugly trend have not yielded much fruit.

It is saddening to note that examination bodies, government functionaries, school authorities, invigilators, parents and students all now participate in the iniquitous exam malpractice. This article will however concentrate on exam malpractice in the senior school certificate examinations. That is where it all began and where, if ever, it must be stopped.

We can extrapolate to some extent from the present trend that examination malpractice will utterly destroy the quality of education in Nigeria if decisive steps are not taken to checkmate the trend. The intractable nature of examination malpractice has resulted in high turnover of half-baked graduates by institutions of higher learning. It is really saddening to note that the Nigeria graduate is fast becoming unemployable in industries as well as being inadmissible in foreign institutions. This is direct fallout of the toleration of the vice in our educational system over the years.

Apparently appalled by the spate of examination malpractice, the Nigerian Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), in 2001, introduced variations in question numerations from candidates to candidates sitting for the same matriculation examination. That year, candidates’ performance in JAMB examination was awfully poor. But it did not take long for the syndicates to devise another means to beat JAMB’s laudable innovation and that, without gainsaying, was with the effective collaboration and connivance of some unscrupulous JAMB officials.

Exam malpractice has long graduated from the normal ‘gyraffing’ at neighbors’ work, using key points, notes or text books or copying on sheets of papers referred to as ‘microchips’, or copying on desks or laps also known as ‘desktop publishing’ and laptop publishing, respectively, etc., to a more advanced and more organized system of buying questions from examination bodies or corrupt bank officials entrusted with the safe-keeping of the examination question papers. Also syndicates have been able to arrange ‘special’ centers for their ‘special’ candidates they enrolled for the exam at exorbitant and unapproved fees with the connivance of examination bodies for the easy perpetration of malpractice. These miracle centers enjoy the patronage of some corrupt school administrators and examination officers. Why on earth should an examination body allow a school to enroll over a hundred candidates when the total number of SSS I & II students are not up to 50 students? What has happened to continuous assessment of old?

These syndicates have made it very easy for somebody to acquire a Senior School Certificate of Education certificate without necessarily entering the examination hall as mercenaries abound to impersonate the candidates without adverse consequence. This trend has, sadly, crept into foreign organized international examinations like the British and the American sponsored examinations (City and Guilds, SAT, TOEFL, etc) organized in Nigeria. These syndicates have also devised mind-boggling means of impersonating and cheating during these examinations. The Nigerian SSCE and GCE is worse hit by this menace. I was had an interesting meeting with a lady who told me she passed her NECO SSCE in flying colours. “Congratulations, you had eight B2,” I had said to her, genuinely glad at her ‘achievement’. “Thank you Uncle…” She replied unhappily. “Why are you not excited at your result?” I had wondered. “I am afraid”, She complained. “I am very worried that I cannot defend this result. Would they ask me to defend it, uncle?” I was stunned. Eight B2 (distinctions) for a blockhead! But that has gone way too bad.
Why is it that very many, if not most, students refuse to take SSCE in the school they attended? Instead they become external candidates in another school where they pay exorbitant fee in order to perpetrate examination malpractice. The Ministries of Education and the examination bodies do not take cognizance of this trend. Even when they do, it is lip service. Many schools have tagged the fee charged candidates for examination malpractice, “cooperation fees or practical fees”. The best explanation that candidates give for changing their schools is that candidates don’t pass examinations there, particularly if the school is one with some reputation for examination ethics. Hence they go to a place where their ‘success’ is guaranteed. Why would exam bodies and the Ministry of Education permit external candidates to sit for SSCE, a school examination? The ability to enroll in any school is partially responsible for recalcitrant behavior and indiscipline in today’s students. What was the GCE meant for? The special centers usually advertise a hundred percent pass in all external examinations. What a shame!

The boggling question is whether examiners pass candidates on the basis of the center an examination was written. Little wonder over 50% increase in SSCE enrolment is recorded in such center (schools) every year and no investigation is carried out by anyone.

Invigilators, exam officials, police, ministry of education inspectors who have been settled from the cooperation fee allow malpractice to go on without hitches. It is only those centers that could not pay the cooperation fee that examination bodies and Ministries of Education give media publicity when one or two candidates are unfortunately caught in malpractice.

Most private schools, if not all, invest huge sums of money, which students contribute to cooperation fee to sponsor exam malpractice in order to maintain a high performance in certificate exams, sometimes they record as high as 100% exam success.

2004 statistics indicate that Zamfara State tops the list of exam malpractice with 47.89% and closely followed by Abia State with 41.71%.

Stakeholders in the educational sector attended a meeting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State Capital recently at the instance of The National Consultative Committee on Education (NCCE). At the meeting, the then minister for Education, Prof. Fabian Osuji, who was later dismissed by President Olusegun Obasanjo for allegedly involving in a bribe scandal that equally claimed the office of the then Nigerian Senate President, Adolphus Wabara, stated that henceforth, schools involved examination malpractice of any magnitude will be de-recognized and barred from enrolling candidates for any public examination for three years. Good talk backed with consequent levity! The Federal Government has given many of such directives in the past without any effect probably because of lack of sincerity of purpose. They simply blow hot and cold even as defaulting schools get more recognition as magic centers for exam success thereby smiling to the banks from increased enrollment. No one has been sanctioned save for un-cooperating schools.

How has exam malpractice attained such a gargantuan proportion in our society? Certificate issued by exam bodies like NECO, WAEC, JAMB etc. lack credibility.

It is incontrovertible that exam malpractice thrives in a corrupt society, which indicates that it is a reflection of the society. It is in the psyche of the people therefore it can only be tackled in the mind of the people. The question is, are the people ready to tackle this sweet poison?

To fight effectively this war against exam malpractice, all the agents of socialization must participate actively in stemming the ugly scenario. The home front (parents) must deliberately discourage their children and wards from further participation in the act by stopping the financing of exam malpractice for them. Encourage the children and ward to study harder. Give them quality education and make them earn their qualification and consequently make you proud.

Examination bodies like NECO, WAEC, NABTEB, and JAMB, etc. must totally dissociate themselves form activities of malpractice syndicates and stop concession postings. Exam bodies should break the vicious circle of exam malpractices by centralizing posting of candidates to exam centers and meeting appropriate sanctions or punishment on offenders without fear of intimidation or favor. Exam bodies must also review the remuneration of their supervisors and invigilators. It has been observed by this writer that in many cases, supervisors are neither paid their supervision fee immediately after the supervision exercise nor given any mobilization fee before the exercise. Sometimes, they get paid twelve months after the exercise. What a set up for disaster! Remuneration for examination supervisors and invigilators should be reviewed and such remuneration should be promptly paid to prevent them from being tempted to involve in the rather lucrative ‘business’ of examination malpractice.

Invigilators, school authorities, police personnel and other exam officials should be put under surveillance, as they are major stakeholders in the business of examination malpractice.

Government and its agencies should henceforth stop handling cases of examination malpractice with kid gloves. Practicable laws should be enacted to check this menace. The law should not recognize sacred cows. Anyone caught cheating or perpetrating examination malpractice should be made to face the music irrespective of status or connections.


Saintmoses Eromosele, Esq. writes from Benin City, Nigeria. Contact Tel: 0805 314 7770, saintmoses1@yahoo.com,www.webspawner.com/users/saintmoses1