Conventionally, examinations are thought to be a way of evaluation of scholars who’ve gone by one degree of training or one other on the finish of a time period, semester or tutorial 12 months.
Nevertheless, amongst different disturbing developments which the trade is experiencing within the nation these days, the incidence of examination malpractices within the Nigerian academic system is a cardinal one that’s quick assuming a degree of nationwide and worldwide embarrassment and harmful dimension. It’s a damaging epidemic, which if not cured quickly, might destroy the nation’s all-important training sector.
Examination malpractices are usually described as wrongdoings earlier than, throughout or after examinations. And, with out mincing phrases, these are having telling, detrimental results on the nation’s high quality of training, simply as many college leavers and graduates can now not defend their certificates. As sinister as this endemic pattern might seem, pressing measures have to be adopted for the cankerworm to not destroy the nation’s future utterly earlier than lengthy: it is too crucial to be uncared for. And, that is actually, one other cogent purpose Nigeria wants ethical renaissance and worth regeneration in all features of its nationwide life.
How does one describe what an examination malpractice is? Based on Nwana (2000), examination malpractice is described because the “large and unprecedented abuse of guidelines and rules pertaining to inside and public examinations, starting from the setting of such examinations by the taking of the examinations, their marking and grading, to the discharge of the outcomes and the issuance of certificates.”
In an analogous vein, a tutorial has tried one other description of this unbridled phenomenon as “the act of omission or fee supposed to make a scholar cross examination with out relying completely on his/her unbiased capacity or sources.”
Sure analysis findings, conclusions, instructive and knowledgeable submissions of educationalists, lecturers, and different prime stakeholders on this particular sector of the nation’s economic system, nonetheless, have indicated that there had been one type of examination malpractice or the opposite earlier than since within the early Seventies when “mass dishonest was first perpetrated in WAEC” (West African Examinations Council).
Maybe, this realisation jolted the examination physique on the secondary college degree to look at critically, varied manifestations and extent of this retrogressive inclination. It reportedly, categorised the totally different types of examination malpractice as together with bringing in overseas supplies to examination halls, irregular actions inside and out of doors examination halls, collusion, impersonation, leakage, mass dishonest and insult/assault on supervisors throughout exams.
Different types of examination malpractices recognized by WAEC embody help of candidates by invigilators to reply or have clue to troublesome ideas, whereas some invigilators additionally go to the extent of answering some components of the query for candidates, except for different kinds as “giraffing, contraband, bullet, tremendous print, escort, missiles, and pregnant biros.”
Nonetheless, what has occurred to the survival of the nation’s training system from that point until at the present time? Sadly, within the continued twenty first Century, examination malpractices of various kinds, kinds and manifestations, incontrovertibly, have worsened and grow to be a nationwide downside. The unbecoming tendency voraciously, continues to eat deep into the social cloth, proper from main colleges to tertiary establishments of studying throughout the Nigerian Federation. It’s no marvel then, that the Nigerian Union of Academics (NUT), of current, passionately requested the Nationwide Meeting to declare a state of emergency within the training sector in order to consciously revamp the misplaced glory of the as soon as thriving trade.
Whereas many stakeholders within the sector but, consider that the prevalent malaise the training sector is just not solely perpetrated by the scholars alone, but in addition with the lively connivance of different stakeholders, together with lecturers, safety brokers, examination invigilators, printers, supervisors, and the like, examination malpractices have equally been described by some within the know of the pervasiveness of the disheartening pattern as “perennial and institutionalised multibillion Naira enterprise”, on which some wicked people, teams and establishments feed fats within the nation as of now.
However then, a pertinent query any honest-minded Nigerians should ask themselves at this juncture is: How did Nigeria get to this decadent state in its training trade? Simply as some main stakeholders and consultants severally, have expressed heartfelt issues in regards to the continuous harm continuous examination malpractices are wreaking on the nation, quite a lot of elements have been superior for this ugly growth.
Amongst different causes adduced for the astronomical enhance in examination malpractices in recent times are that in sure instances, “questions usually are not associated to the syllabus”, and consequently, examination malpractices are inspired. It is also, been alleged that topic syllabuses are overloaded and troublesome for examination candidates, so that they usually instances discover it troublesome to manage. However, are these tenable excuses for doubtful candidates and their wicked collaborators to have interaction in examination irregularities? It is merely indefensible for candidates to resort to examination irregularities. It is believed that with decided, acutely aware efforts at succeeding in any worthwhile endeavour, together with examinations, “the place there’s a will, there’s a method.”
Many college students’ rising lack of seriousness and preparedness to tackle their future, as many consider that the majority learners today are “not able to be taught”. For example, it has been noticed that in most public colleges specifically, college students are seen roaming the streets, whereas some seen with house video cassettes and compact disks (CDs/DVDs) and others taking part in soccer throughout college hours.
Equally, in a determined try at freezing dad and mom financially, there have been established cases by which examination reside questions are hurriedly solved by college managements in collusion with employed examination writers, impersonators oftentimes in “personal colleges’ principals’ workplaces” with the intention to please the dad and mom to the detriment of their youngsters’s future prospect. And, these key college officers are anticipated to be position fashions, paragons of forthrightness, honesty, and integrity to those younger ones, aren’t they?
It has been established that this anomaly is normally perpetrated concurrently, as college students write theirs in examination halls, after which copies of such examination options are made and distributed to their college students for mass copying, thereby turning their colleges into sanctuaries of examination malpractices at worst. Stories say examiners are, certainly, getting wiser in monitoring such anomalies in examination reply scripts in current instances.
Sure involved educationists, amongst others causes, equally, have hinged the widespread examination malpractices at totally different ranges of training within the Nigerian system to sloppy emphasis on paper {qualifications}, low ethical requirements in colleges, ‘419’ syndrome, candidates’ insecurity in themselves, concern of failure as a consequence of inadequate preparations, outright laziness, declining societal worth system leading to all kinds of get-rich-quick preparations, gradual lack of values equivalent to trade and enterprise in attaining any sustainable private success as properly poor skilled requirements and inappropriate curricular for coaching of lecturers.
It is thus, no marvel that many dad and mom and guardians who’re starting to grasp the gimmicks of sure colleges in “cooking” glorious outcomes for his or her youngsters and wards with the intention to please them. On account of this widespread evil observe, many dad and mom have gotten disillusioned by the day.
However, the place have all these left the nation’s academic system in current instances? The implications on the stakeholders specifically and the Nigerian society basically have been weighty and multifarious. One is the entrenched pondering that dishonest in examinations pays, in opposition to the backdrop of the truth that societal values are quick on the decline.
Nevertheless, many of those corrupt stakeholders who hitherto had been making a lot cash from the irregularities, desperately, are discovering it tougher and extra tasking than ever to disabuse the minds of those younger ones, that examination frauds don’t pay and won’t take them far in life.
Examination irregularities, once more, have instigated groundswell of criticisms from uncommon quarters over the credibility of certificates award to highschool leavers and graduates from our establishments of upper studying. Stark incompetence, lack of primary employable and communication expertise, declining nationwide capacity-building, senseless official corruption in several sectors of the economic system have grow to be the plain traits of the prevailing system.
A soul-searching query to ask all of the stakeholders is that this: Is it stunning within the least that many dad and mom and guardians, regardless of their monetary functionality, now search admissions for his or her youngsters and wards into tertiary establishments, whether or not registered or not, in neighbouring African nations as Benin Republic, Ghana and South Africa, to not point out these leaving Nigeria for the Americas, Europe and Asia to accumulate training? Checks have revealed that plenty of them, together with the nation’s management appear to have misplaced confidence within the beleaguered training sector.
People who find themselves nonetheless sceptical in regards to the deepening antagonistic results of examination malpractices in Nigerian colleges, schools and institutes must hearken to human capital recruitment professionals, HR consultants and company trainers after they relate their frustrations over horrible experiences they do have with many job candidates’ lack of employable cum easy communication expertise, when confronted with the duty of choosing appropriate fingers from scores of job candidates for positions in each private and non-private sector organisations throughout the nation.
Thus, “chances are high that the typical graduate we get right this moment won’t match into any job as a result of a few of them can not communicate Primary English; some can not write a easy letter. The standard is so unhealthy that you simply lay our a fortune coaching them with out getting any end result, as a result of some issues that ought to have occurred earlier of their lives didn’t occur, Mrs. Ijeoma Rita Obu, a human capital growth skilled and CEO of Clement Ashley Consulting, as soon as lamented in her chat with BusinessDay.
Many consider Nigeria can not afford to miss the plain worsening, damaging results of examination malpractices heartlessly crushing the soul of the training trade. Failure to deal with this rising detrimental drift certain would jeopardise any real efforts being intensified in direction of realising the wanted capacity-building for the attainment of Imaginative and prescient 20-2020 financial goal.
Opposite to an specific suggestion by the Nationwide Meeting that the Nigerian Universities ought to cease the conduct of post-Universities Matriculation Examinations (post-UME) checks being administered by these establishments, it’s instructive that the involved authorities want to enhance on the interior mechanisms of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and operations of associated examination our bodies in Nigeria. The lawmakers, nonetheless, want to grasp that if such inadequacies, together with examination malpractices and candidates’ poor preparations for the challenges of tertiary training had not been recognized by these lecturers within the nation’s Ivory Tower earlier, the thought of post-UME wouldn’t have arisen within the first place. One believes these establishments, both instantly or not directly, should be in concerned in figuring out the standard of candidates to be admitted for varied tutorial programmes.
Subsequently, to revive the fortune of the nation’s training trade, correct planning, environment friendly administration, supervision, enough funding for the availability of educating and studying services, and motivation of lecturers, instructors, and different key stakeholders by way of well timed funds of their salaries, commissions, and stipends are fairly consequential, for the reason that success of any academic system largely, is determined by these measures.
Although JAMB, WAEC, Nationwide Examinations Council (NECO), Nationwide Enterprise and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB) and Nationwide Academics Institute (NTI), amongst others are reportedly making efforts at blacklisting and derecognising some colleges and examination centres over confirmed irregularities for sure durations of time, applicable governmental authorities additionally, should complement their efforts by making use of diligently, the availability of Examination Malpractice Act 33 of 1999, stipulating punishment starting from a high-quality of N50, 000 to N100, 000 and imprisonment for a time period of 3-4 years with or with out choice of high-quality, with the intention to function a deterrent to different inside and exterior examination fraudsters who yearly feed fats on these illegalities.
Save for the rising low ethical requirements in many faculties, schools and different establishments of studying today, except for dad and mom and different upright people within the society, lecturers and instructors naturally, ought to function position fashions to right this moment’s college students however tomorrow’s leaders. Some morally bankrupt lecturers, instructors, college principals and proprietors/proprietresses who’ve continued to connive with employed examination writers to show their colleges into havens for examination malpractices, whereas deceiving many dad and mom with cooked ‘unbelievable’ examination outcomes of their youngsters and wards, ought to desist from this shameful act. Any of them caught within the act must be prosecuted by the Unbiased Corrupt Practices and Different Associated Offences fee (ICPC). What such ones do is nothing however financial sabotage, as they’re destroying the nation’s future right this moment.
Authorities in any respect ranges, as a matter of precedence, ought to cease paying lip-service to the availability of required educating and studying services within the colleges, well timed fee of workers salaries and fringe advantages with the intention to minimise corruption within the nation’s academic system. The observe by which Authorities officers and politicians mindlessly, ship their youngsters and wards overseas on the payments of tax payers’ cash for higher scholarship, simply as Nigeria’s college system rots away beneath the deadweight of avoidable issues won’t assist in restoring confidence within the system.
Subsequently, all stakeholders inside the nation’s academic system ought to uphold the sanctity of examinations, in order that high quality could also be restored to the failing system. Everyone seems to be required to be dedicated to alter and be a part of this needed change by which ethical instruction, self-discipline might be employed to handle examination malpractices in Nigerian colleges. High quality training stays an incredible instrument for sustainable nationwide growth.
