Exam malpractice as a stumbling block to education development

One of the biggest threats to the development of education in Nigeria today is the rate at which examination malpractice is gaining ground. Examination malpractice has been embraced by so many that they no longer see it as a crime but an easy way to avoid failure in examination.This scourge is the order of the […]

One of the biggest threats to the development of education in Nigeria today is the rate at which examination malpractice is gaining ground. Examination malpractice has been embraced by so many that they no longer see it as a crime but an easy way to avoid failure in examination.
This scourge is the order of the day in our primary, secondary and even tertiary institutions and in some schools it has become a good business and as such tagged their school ‘miracle centre’ where you pass at one seating.
In fact larger percentage of students sitting for school certificate examination like WAEC or NECO exams no longer write these exams on their own. People go about freely discussing how they cheated or were helped to cheat in exam in their various centres.
This is the reason why you see students with a very ‘’good’’ result but who find it difficult to pass JAMB exams to various universities and polytechnics and you will be wondering how these students passed their WAEC or NECO with more than five credits, including mathematics and English.
Out of curiosity I tried to find out how students of private schools pass examinations with ease. What I discovered was disheartening as examination that was officially registered for between N8,000 to N10,000 are registered for N50,000 to N70,000.
Also, in most of our higher institutions, people employ various means to pass exams like bringing extraneous materials to the exam hall and using mobile phones with the aid of earphones in the exam hall.
Some students also get question papers before the examination with the support of their lecturers, while some female students offer themselves to gain favour from lecturers.
Again, it was discovered that parents, employees, government and other regulatory examination bodies are to be blamed.
One wonders what has gone wrong with our value system, as parents now go about looking for ‘miracle centres’ to enroll their children so that they pass exams without any study.
Governments on the other hand, show a lackadaisical attitude towards policy formulation and implementation in the sector.
WAEC, NECO, JAMB and other examination bodies in Nigeria are the major players in the perpetration of examination malpractice.
Examination bodies should break the vicious circle of examination malpractice by centralising the posting of candidates to exam centres and appropriately sanction the offenders without fear or favour.
Zuwera Jibril is a 400 level student of Mass Communication at BUK