Putting a stop to examination malpractice or facing the aftermaths, which of the duo?
By Adeniyi Yusuff Olamilekan
It is not uncommon, the prevalence of examination malpractice across this country, Nigeria. Examination malpractice has been a very dreadful crime that the Nigerian education system is battling. The crime has eaten very deep into the fluid of many that to curb it has been a problem. The agents of socialization who are supposed to be agents of good values are now the die-hard propagators of the so-called crime.
Nowadays, schools and families are inciting most students to engage in crime to pass excellently. They have forgotten that it’s a disgrace and failure on their part to be imbibing an unbecoming mindset in their students and children respectively. This is very evident in most secondary schools during exams, especially during external exams whereby they invest heavily in bribing the supervisors to avail them of the opportunity to supply their students with answers to the questions.
Isn’t that an indication that you taught them nothing?
Indeed, it is. Because teachers who are confident of what they teach their students will not bother to aid them during exams not to talk of bribing supervisors. That is very horrible and god-forsaken of teachers. Unapologetically, such teachers are a disgrace to the noble profession of teaching, and whenever teachers are called, they should cover their faces in shame. Such are parasites but not teachers.
On the part of the parents, they go as far as registering exams for their children in a remote exam center, slangily called “Miracle Centre. ” Theirs is to ensure that their children pass irrespective of the means they employ. Then, the question is where are your pride as parents? It has long departed you because no sane and morally upright parent will allow such to happen. They are supposed to fold their hands in regret. They should be regretting the amount of money they have invested in the children’s education up to the very moment. Yet, all the expenses have been poured into a basket without yielding any positive result. Then, what is the essence of education without being able to write your exams yourself? Isn’t that a failure and misplacing of priority of the highest order? Indeed, it’s and the more you embrace this decadence, the worse it becomes.
A brother once said “He knew a female student who is at 400-level in a university and cannot correctly spell her name. ” Then, the question is how did she manage to pass WASSCE, UTME, and even gain admission. Probably, she is a product of misoriented schools that perceive massive good grades as the only thing that portrays them as the best. Meanwhile, it’s just one of the criteria, the priority should be teaching the students in a way that they would be able to subdue any academic challenges that come their way. Until then, you can truly be called Educators.
What effects does that have on the students or children?
You can now see many students who are nonchalant about studying against exams since they know that there is someone somewhere striving hard on how to get them “expo. “It is during the time of examination most students will be engaging in time-consuming activities. Isn’t that the time they are supposed to be using in revising? Yes, not reading but revising. A student who knows the purpose of his studying would have studied long before the approach of the exam, a week or two weeks before to exam can only serve as revision for a serious-minded person. However, otherwise is the case in this country as there is no time students set aside for studying and you want such study to be blessed.
This is what makes most students become nuisances to society. They will be perpetrating different sorts of unscrupulous activities like smoking, engaging in thuggery, raping, and the most common is becoming Agba Awo (Yahoo-guys) which is ritualistic. Since those we look upon for building the growing ones have failed in their responsibilities, nothing less of negativity should be expected from the children as the bricks of their foundations are arranged by incompetent bricklayers, and their buildings tend to collapse vehemently.
For every time problem, there must be a panacea to it. So, to remedy examination malpractice, the following measures should be implemented;
First, the agents of socialization such as the family, schools, religious leaders, and others should help in encouraging the students to be very hardworking in their studies as it is with hardworking coupled with prayer can guarantee success. Also, they should not in any way help or aid the students in their exams and whoever is found doing that should be punished for that to serve as a deterrent for others.
In addition, examination bodies should have very strict rules and regulations that should be well implemented and at the same time should caution all their personnel not to take bribes. So, whoever that defaults that should be made to face the wrath of the law. Also, there should be rigorous cross-examinations of students’ scripts to ascertain which school participated in the crime and there should be lifetime banning of the school from participating in subsequent exams.
Third, the government should make the existing law against examination malpractice very fortified in the sense that examination malpractice will be a no-go area for students and will make them take their studies seriously.
Lastly, the mass media as the fourth Estate of the Realm should work along with other agents of socialization to curb crime. As such, there should be consistent campaigns against examination malpractice on all media of communication be it radio, Television, newspaper, magazine, and other media stressing the need to put a stop to it, awareness of the punishment as well and encouraging the students to be more studious to attain the best result.
By putting into consideration, the aforementioned solutions, examination malpractice will go on an everlasting extinction.
Adeniyi Yusuff Olamilekan, is from the Department of Mass Communication, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
