THE examination malpractice quagmire reared its ugly head again at the Nigeria Examinations Committee (NEC) meeting, held in Lagos recently. The NEC is an arm of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) that considers various reports filed by the councils personnel, who had supervised the Senior School Certificate Examinations (SSCE). Membership of the committee includes representatives of the States Ministries of Education and the Department of Education of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, representatives of the All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS), representatives of universities, the Registrar to Council, the Head of the Nigeria national office and the Head of the Test Development Division of the Council in Nigeria.This time, the fate of about 51, 876 candidates, whose 2010 November/December SSCE results are being withheld, was one of the major items on the agenda. Out of 310,077 candidates that sat for the examination, which consisted of 168,835 males and 141,242 females, only 62,295 candidates, representing 20.04 per cent obtained credits in English Language, Mathematics and at least three other subjects.According to WAECs analysis, only 23.54 per cent made five credits including English and Mathematics in 2008, while the percentage rose to 31.96 in 2009, before plummeting to 20.04 per cent in 2010.There were cartons of exhibits that served as evidences against some of the candidates who were allegedly involved in various aspects of examination malpractice.In one instance, an array of exhibits revealed that some candidates copied from one another. Some submitted more than one answer sheet, while others were caught with materials in the examination hall. A particular student was alleged to have inserted a sheet of paper he was copying answers from into his booklet, which was discovered at the marking point.The acting chairman of NEC, Mr. Adeniyi Falade, who presided over the meeting, disclosed that after due consideration of the cases, the committee endorsed the appropriate sanctions prescribed by the rules and regulations governing the conduct of the examination. The sanctions ranged from outright banning of some notorious candidates from writing any WAEC organised examination, to cancellation of either the entire or subject results of all indicted candidates.Falade called on the various states Ministries of Education to exercise their authority as supervisors of the education sector, and clamp down on schools that perpetuate or condone examination malpractice. The Committee, which expressed serious concern over the high level of malpractice in examinations, also called for a stop to the practice by community leaders, who visit examination centres under the guise of monitoring the conduct of examinations, but who, in reality, promote malpractice.Private school owners were also berated for their involvement in the high spate of examination malpractice in the secondary school system. The committee was of the opinion that the vice had been gaining grounds because some private school proprietors treat education purely as business venture, rather than a social service.Teachers who were found wanting were not left out of the committees wrath. Those who were implicated are to be reported to the appropriate authorities for disciplinary action.Falade said: Candidate whom the committee feels do not have convincing evidences against them were left off the hook. The various decisions of the committee will be implemented without delay and affected candidates will be duly informed by the national office.The decay of facilities in the public schools over the years was also highlighted as a factor responsible for mass failure of students in public schools. This has contributed immensely to the decline in standards in public schools and it calls for more commitment from various governments in redressing the situation, he observed.However, some private school owners also condemned the high incidence of examination malpractice, but insisted that the society should also be blamed for it.According to Mr. Sunny Attah, an economist and chairman of Mandate Private Schools, Igando, on the outskirts of Lagos, to reduce the high rate of examination malpractice in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), all hands must be on the deck. He said: Many people go into the education industry for the purpose of making money. That is why you will see people establishing a school in a face-me-I-face-you house, and before you know it, government has given them approval, and they will start registering candidates for WASSCE.A school that has population of less than 25 students will now register 400 students for WASSCE. Yet, we say we are fighting exam malpractices.Again, there is no way a school that accepts external candidates will be free from exam malpractice. That is why we dont accept external candidates at Mandate School, except you join us from the beginning or on transfer from SS1, SS2 and SS3 first term. But at least, you must join us for one academic session before you write an examination with us. That is our new policy, we tried it before and discovered that external candidates were bringing a lot of disorderliness, so we stopped it.However, he suggested that adequate remuneration and training of teachers would help matters. If all private schools in Lagos could concentrate on making sure that they employ the right teachers, train them adequately and expose them to all that they need to know and do, there is no blockhead among these children, and there is no way our students will not be brilliant.And so, the problem lies with the school owners. What do we want What is the objective for starting a school Is it to raise future leaders or to raise money to travel abroad Remember, the real objective of education is to develop human capital that will help in building our nation, raising the leaders of tomorrow.Attah also blamed parents for promoting unethical practices. Parents no longer accept the use of appropriate age for a particular class for their children. If you are strict and you insist on a particular right age, parents will withdraw their children to schools that will accept them. There is a limit to what a brain can carry at a certain age, except in some exceptional cases, when we have a genius, but we know them when we see them. The fact that Mr. As child is an exceptional case in your compound at the age of eight, does not mean you should now force your own child to write common entrance while still in primary four.On why many schools are being run as business ventures rather than as a social service, he said: School business is not necessarily for profit making. But if the right thing is done, you will be able to make profit from it. It is not an investment that you can say you want to make profit as you start, but when you meet customers needs and exceed customers expectations, definitely profit will come.To Mr. Samuel Adaramoye of Borik Schools, Ikotun, Lagos, the government has failed woefully in its responsibility of inspecting schools. He declared: Government is lacking in its own responsibility. The oversight function has been abandoned for quite a while. In those days, you hear about inspectors going to monitor schools, but in the recent time, nobody bothers to do that.It is a pity that the issue of education is left in the hands of mediocre school owners who feel that education is a business enterprise. They should bear it in mind that genuine training is necessary if we are to produce adequate manpower. Cutting corners will not help us.Speaking earlier, the Head of the Nigeria National Office of the Council, Dr. Iyi Uwadiae said that governments at all levels were to be held responsible in the area of funding and facilities, while school authorities should take the blame for their poor teaching and window dressing attitude during WAEC inspections.He said: WAEC has a mandate to conduct examinations. We go out of our way to advise on how to improve teaching and learning. We compile the Chief Examiners Report, which comprises of students weaknesses and strengths, and we encourage teachers to look at it, read it and effect changes. We have also observed that some schools are into window-dressing to make up for WAECs inspection and this is not good as learning can only take place in an ideal environment.To him, adequate learning cannot take place where there is a dearth of qualified teachers, dilapidated classrooms, inadequate teaching aids and other learning facilities. If all tiers of government, stakeholders and proprietors of private schools sincerely address these problems, he declared, the quality of education and students performances would improve.Areas of weakness identified in the Chief Examiners Report include: shallow knowledge of subject matter, inadequate coverage of syllabuses, disregard for rubrics, incorrect interpretation of questions, poor expression of the English Language, lack of mathematical/ manipulative skills, poor knowledge of examination techniques and wrong spelling of technical terms.Uwadiae advised teachers to make judicious use of the report and also use syllabuses side by side with teaching.Commenting on the shift of some papers in the May/ June WAEC examination due to their clash with election dates, the Registrar of Council, Mrs. Mulikat Bello said:We have to strike a balance and consider the interest of the Nigerian child. Nigeria is a key part of WAEC and as an organisation with a listening ear, we have had meetings with the Ministry of Education and made arrangements so that the papers can be moved to a day that does not clash with the elections in Nigeria. A formal announcement for a new date would be made across member countries of WAEC.She also doused fears concerning other subjects such as Mathematics scheduled for April 27th, 2011, a day after the election. WAEC has been in the business of conducting public examinations for over 59 years, and we have our strategy. I want to assure Nigerian students that they will write Mathematics on the exact day scheduled for the exam which is the April 27th, she assured.
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