The National Examination Council has expressed concern over the rising number of examination malpractice cases in the nation.
During a session in Abuja titled “The Role of Education Stakeholders in Tackling Examination Malpractices in Nigeria,” the chief registrar of the examination body, Professor Ibrahim Wushishi, announced this.
The NECO head bemoaned the harm done to the nation’s educational system in a statement that was made accessible to our correspondent on Saturday.
Without a doubt, cheating on exams tends to dissuade serious students from putting in extra effort, lowers educational standards, invalidates certifications obtained, and creates quacks, which has an impact on the nation’s need for skilled labor, he stated.
“Therefore, it is our shared responsibility to get rid of them.
”We must, therefore, take collective responsibility to rid them of this bad habit of wanting to cut corners,” he added.
In a separate speech, Ibrahim Geidam, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic and Secondary Education, warned that if the problem of exam fraud was not handled, the educational system could lose all confidence.
Geidam, who was represented by the Vice-Chairman of the committee, Sen. Akon Eyakenyi, said that stakeholders had the task to rescue the system from the threshold of examination malpractice.
” Examination for all is the responsibility of all, we must rise to the challenges of arresting the monster.
” MDAs should wake up to their responsibilities in the areas of monitoring, managers of education should effectively deploy reward system to encourage hard work.
”Also, law enforcement and anti-grant agencies should continue to lend their helping hands and support the fight against examination malpractices,” she said.
Geidam urged the media to play its part in shining a spotlight on those who cheat on exams and urged the National Orientation Agency, or NOA, to conduct sensitization campaigns in rural areas all across the nation.
Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, the chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Basic and Secondary Education, called for harsh consequences against any institutions proven to be responsible for exam fraud.
Ihonvbere said that it was time to control the menace saying that if not checked, the country would continue to breed crooks that would eventually sell the country in future.
He, therefore, advised examination bodies to control examinations through proper monitoring in the villages saying that examination personnel often connive with school authorities in the villages to commit malpractices.
In a paper presentation, Dr. Aminu Wushishi of the Education Foundations Unit, Faculty of Education and Arts, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, claimed that the threat had been exacerbated by parents, students, school administrators, owners of private schools, and the government.
Wushishi claimed that some parents have paid individuals to take exams on their children’s behalf and have even bribed supervisors and invigilators to administer exams on their children’s behalf.
He consequently urged testing organizations like NECO to coordinate disciplinary actions with owners and administrators of schools.
He also called on NECO to employ ICT or its CBT platform to offer integrity and legitimacy to its examinations. He also encouraged the National Assembly to expand the areas under the ICPC and EFCC’s purview in order to combat incidences of examination misconduct in Nigeria.
