CAN WE CURB EXAMINATION MALPRACTICES IN NIGERIA OR JUST PRETENDING?

WHY WAEC,NECO AND JAMB MALPRACTICES

ARE HARD TO CONTROL IN NIGERIA

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INTRO

I have operated in the Nigerian Education sector for over 25 yrs. My assessment about cheating and examination malpractices is as follows:It is widespread beyond your imagination and CAN NEVER BE REDUCED OR STOPPED…as long as our societal values in this country remain the same.Let me put forward 10 reasons/difficult suggestions in simple straightforward English Language why my conclusion is as expressed.

REASONS/SUGGESTION

1, Cheating and examination malpractices are directly related  to the quality of our educational inputs.We cannot grow grass and expect apples.And what are these warped inputs?. There are more than 100 of them and we shall be mentioning them as we continue to develop additional write-ups on malpractices.

2.There is basically academic dishonesty in our educational set-up at the secondary school level.I shall deliberately avoid discussing the dishonesty at other levels.Take for instance the case of school continuous assessments.Do parents actually bother themselves about the accuracy of these reports?. Do schools really bother about the integrity of internal tests? How do they ensure that daily assignments submitted were actually done by students and that they were not copied or uploaded/downloaded from one student to another? Are schools and parents aware that more than 70% of students do not take homework seriously?Do schools have internal auditing systems to confirm or maintain the integrity of what they put together as students’ continuous assessments?

3. If you gather SS3 students together after their WAEC or JAMB examinations and if they feel very close to you like in a father-son  relationship they will make some mind-boggling confessions to you.They will inform you that more than 90% of them were involved in one form of academic fraud or the other  between JSS1 and SS3. More than 90% of them will also tell you that they have seen their classmates also involved in one form of cheating during their six years in the secondary school!Nearly all of them will confirm that they had cheated on daily homework!. So the problem of cheating at WAEC or Jamb are actually deeply rooted in our educational fabric.Their manifestations  at those levels are mere symptoms of a silent killer or the branches/off-shoots of a diseased stem.

4.What is most surprising,however, is that almost all these students agree that based on moral and religious teachings cheating is bankrupt and indefensible.

5.Virtually all of them also agree that school invigilators and tutors are corrupt.They confirmed that some of them turn blind eyes to what is going on in their school exam halls.And there have been cases where tutors were caught doctoring students reports going to parents-even at faith-based secondary schools.

6.Some of these students have suggested that since churches and mosques are now everywhere it could be useful to have pastors,deacons,imams and born-again volunteers posted as joint invigilators as it would go a long way in countering many cheating activities which run very negative to religious values.They said helping to keep students on the straight and narrow path is equivalent to saving their lives too.

7.What is most worrisome is that many students  consider cheating at very impersonal levels.Many do not see their involvement as a determinant of their personality.This detachment is one big factor making cheating very acceptable to them.

8.Since the country places a high premium in getting high-grade results many students feel they are justified to cheat by any means necessary to have good grades.

9. Some students in particular are bitter about how their schools or tutors handled them.They also look at cheating as fair and a sort of payback to such schools or tutors who never believed in them.

10.Some students also confirmed that cheating was traditional in their schools and that they simply joined what they met on the ground.To them,cheating is a game needing team effort like playing a basketball game.

CONCLUSION?

SO WHAT DO YOU THINK? CAN MALPRACTICES BE CURED BY MERELY LOOKING FOR SO-CALLED BARONS,CARTELS AND RELEASING THEM WITHOUT LONG JAIL TERMS OR BY BLACKMAILING SCHOOLS OR INDIVIDUALS ONLY? PLEASE LET US HAVE YOUR OPINION TOO.

Thank you.

Acknowledgement: Dr Wilda of WordPress for similar work done on examination malpractices in the U.S…