Of State-and-School Sponsored Examination Malpractice
By Victor Oluwayemi, PhD
When I was young, mind you; I am still a young man, examination malpractice was self-sponsored and/or parent-sponsored. However, this monster, which has refused to die in the Nigerian educational system, like its twin brother, corruption, in the Nigerian state, has grown to become so huge and gigantic in size and magnitude.
That all is well with the Nigerian state, especially its educational system, is a lie like the name of a known former minister. The rate at which all values and morals is eroding is alarming to say the least.
It is rather unfortunate that nowhere seems untainted in our clime anymore. The degeneration in the system seems to be beyond redemption, and any iota of hope to saving the near-dying-and-failing state gets grimmer with each passing day.
Education, which one would expect to rise up to the challenges of the state, is already in a shambles. No wonder now that examination malpractice is both school-sponsored and state-sponsored.
You may want to ask how does the school sponsor examination malpractice and likewise how does the state sponsor this menace. Well, as much as possible, I will try to answer this bi-dimensional seemingly paradoxical question subsequently.
A friend recently shared with me some goings-on in our schools. He said that any student caught cheating during any internally organised examination in the school would be seriously dealt with by the teachers and the school authorities. But quite unfortunately, it was the same set of teachers who would be spoonfeeding and leading the students into cheating adventures, so far the examination is externally organised by the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC), the National Examinations Council (NECO) and others.
What a double standard! Or what do we call a situation whereby the principals of a number of public schools now collect examination malpractice fee of N4, 000 and above from students who are sitting for external examinations?
One then begins to wonder the essence of sending children to school, employing teachers to teach and prepare the children for examinations and life, and buying books if the students will still be aided and spoonfed during their external examinations! Since our children will still be ‘assisted’ as some school owners brand the vice of examination malpractice, why not let us cancel schooling and all that it stands for?
Maybe if we invest the individual millions and government billions annually budgeted for education/schooling into something worthwhile, we will have good returns on our investments! All we need do is to take our children and wards to school when WAEC and NECO examinations are ongoing and let the teachers do their ‘job’ — answering the questions for them!
Let me turn to how examination malpractice is state-sponsored. Education, due to its importance, which we have either lost or forgotten in Nigeria, is always one of the indices in which an administration’s performance is measured or judged. Thus, in many states of the country, especially where what is called qualifying examination is done for students in senior secondary one and two, the ministries of education (science and technology) have made it a norm/culture to reject the broadsheets that contain the results of underperforming students, thereby coercing the principals and teachers to upgrade the performance of the students, which in the real sense is actually downgrading and killing their future.
More so, governors and commissioners for education like to score some political points for good outing of their students in external examinations of WAEC and NECO by wanting to show that they have improved the lots of education better than they met it when their administration came on board.
Therefore, they compel, whether directly or otherwise, principals and teachers to collude with students and their parents to cheat during their examinations, so as to increase their rating.
While these sponsors of examination malpractice think they are ‘assisting’ and ‘helping’ the students, unknowingly to them, they are realistically destroying the future of the children, the home, the state and the country at large.
These days, it is far better learning handicrafts than being one of the products of terrible and destructive educational system in Nigeria. For instance, no good tailor would do ‘freedom’ (i.e. graduation) for an apprentice who cannot sew cloths for himself or herself, not to talk of clients. If an ordinary tailor would not do that, why do the state and the school keep destroying their future for immediate gains and political points?
The state and the school with the parents should remember that nobody can ever cheat life. In life, failure is inevitable. Let the students fail wonderfully, learn from their failure and try again –it is the cycle of life. The earlier we wake up to collectively kill this huge monster called examination malpractice, the better for us and posterity.
Previously published in Nigerian Tribune on October 2, 2021.
Author
