EXAM MALPRACTICE: An Albatross to Nigerian education system

In what could best be described as a major setback for Nigeria’s education system – examination malpractice, a source at the West African Examination Council (WAEC), laments that the nation’s examination body is still struggling to eradicate the trend.

It would be recalled that the Council has always introduced measures to curb this ugly incidence, but perpetrators have also introduced new devices and techniques to the act.

The Daily Times learnt firsthand that perpetrators of exam malpractice have continued to devise ingenious and sophisticated methods of cheating, leading to an exponential increase in reported cases of fraud in examinations.

WAEC record shows that after the May/June 1993 West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in Nigeria, for example, the results of only 58.494 candidates were withheld because of exam malpractice; but by 2017, the number soared to 214,952.

According to the Council Registrar, Dr Uyi Uwadiae said the most notorious challenge facing examining bodies and other educational institutions in WAEC member states is examination malpractice.

“Currently, the malaise has assumed dangerous and criminal dimensions on the heels of some advancement in technology which created the Smartphones, the social media etc.”

Uwadiae said the Council has introduced several measures, adopted various strategies and deployed technologies at great costs in the fight against the ever festering menace.

In furtherance to its fight against the scourge which has ravaged the nation’s education system, WAEC has urged the federal government to declare perpetrators as terrorists and treat them as such.

“This is because candidates have devised various dangerous means such as carrying guns and dangerous weapons to the examination halls to prevent officials from monitoring and apprehending perpetrators of examination malpractice.

Some even drug officials, they give them drinks which make them sleep throughout the conduct of exam”, he said.

To this end, Uwadiae said WAEC will be organising an International Summit on examination malpractice slated for October 19 and 20, 2017 with the theme “Examination Malpractice: The Contemporary Realities and Antidotes”.

According to the Registrar, research has shown that one of the ways of curbing the worrisome trend in examination irregularities is the mounting of public enlightenment campaigns to draw attention of stakeholders and the general public to the negative effects of examination malpractice on national development.

“We are also calling on leaders of religious institutions to preach against the evil of examination malpractice. Let them tell their followers of the danger and the evil it does to our society”, he said.

Other measures taken by the Council include introducing multiple diets of West African Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) for private candidates.

In the 2016 WASSCE results for private candidates, results of 13,488 candidates (representing 7.81 percent) are being withheld in connection with various cases of examination malpractice.

WAEC also cancelled 113 Secondary Schools Centers for malpractices.

The results of 145,795 candidates, representing 8.61 percent were also withheld in connection with various types of examination malpractices which were reported both during the exercise and at the marking of the May/June 2014 West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

Also in 2012, the results of 30,654 candidates were withheld for related offences.

During its 62nd annual exercise, the Council directed that the entire results of candidates involved in proven cases of examination malpractice, which attract Cancellation of Entire Results (CER) be cancelled, while subject results of those involved in proven cases which attract Cancellation of Subject Results (CSR), be similarly cancelled.

In addition, some candidates will also suffer other sanctions such as barring them from sitting for the Council’s examinations for a certain number of years while some schools will be de-recognised, their principals reported to the Ministry of Education for disciplinary action while erring supervisors will be blacklisted.

The decisions of the Committee will be implemented without delay and the affected candidates and schools will be duly informed by the Council.

However, the results of candidates who were exonerated by the Committee will be released.

Furthermore, the Committee considered special cases, clemency cases, restitution, petitions and previous cases referred for further investigation from previous examinations.

It also commended the Council for deploying a technology that can stop candidates barred because of malpractice from registration for its examinations for a stated period.

In addition, because of the high incidence of schools writing on the chalkboards for their students to copy during the WASSCE for School Candidates in 2016, the Committee decided that if a school is warned for aiding and abetting cheating three times within a period of five years, such school would be de-recognised.

It also took a decision to withdraw the recognition of two schools for assaulting a supervisor.

Finally, the Committee resolved that, henceforth, any school that allows candidates to be impersonated during the WASSCE for school candidates will be sanctioned. It however, expressed dismay at the situation where candidates forge the signature of Supervisors on their scripts.

Lending credence to the call against examination malpractice, Deputy Governor of Lagos State who also doubles as the Commissioner of Education, Mrs Oluranti Adebule has said during an Annual Education Merit Award held at Alausa, Lagos,

that any teacher found aiding examination malpractice would be dismissed without any compensation – especially those reported by the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC), stressing that Education is the catalyst that drives every other factor towards the realisation of vision and aspiration.