NECO unveils measures to check exam malpractice
By Doosuur Iwambe
The National Examinations Council (NECO) has put in place new measures to tackle the menace of examination mal practice in the country.
The exam body while calling for concerted efforts to nip the trend in the bud expressed its readiness to totally root out incidents of exam malpractice in all its examinations.
NECO Registrar /Chief Executive of NECO, Professor Ibrahim Dantani Wushishi, made this disclosure during a one-day sensitization workshop on examination malpractice, on Monday.
Speaking on the theme of the workshop, ‘The Role of Education Stakeholders in Tackling Examination Malpractice in Nigeria,’ Professor Wushishi said there is urgent need to curtail the problem to ensure all-round development of the country.
“One of the biggest challenges bedeviling the conduct of public examinations now is the issue of examination malpractice.
” This workshop is therefore both thoughtful and timely,and should address the ways and means that can be adopted to curb the menace and re-orient the minds of the youths concerning this cankerworm, as no nation develops when its youths indulge in sharp practices such as examination malpractice.
“No doubt, examination malpractice has the tendency to discourage hard work among serious students, lowers educational standards, discredit certificates, and lead to the production of quacks, thereby affecting the manpower needs of the nation.
”We must therefore take collective responsibility to rid them of this bad habit of wanting to cut corners,” he said.
Speaking further, the NECO boss said the Council has rolled out several measures to check the problem of malpractice in the conduct of all its examinations.
He listed the measures to include; Effective conduct of accreditation and re-accreditation exercise in schools,biometric data capturing of candidates to check impersonation of candidates registered for examination and to help identify miracle centres where examination malpractice are perpetrated.
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Others are use of officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to provide security at examination centres to prevent miscreants/agents of examination malpractice, provision of covert operations by officers of the Department of State Service (DSS) to guide against compromising examination through the internet, daily distribution of examination question papers and other sensitive materials, monitoring of marking exercise to ensure that best practices are observed, among others.
On his part, Minister of State for Education, Honourable Goodluck Nanah Opiah, lavished praise on NECO for organising the workshop, even as he described it as a right step in the right direction.
