Funmi Ogundare
The West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC) yesterday lamented the high rate of malpractices in its public examination, saying misguided candidates and their collaborators, including school authorities, teachers and parents, have continued to devise ingenious and sophisticated methods of cheating.
The Council’s Registrar, Dr. Iyi Uwadiae, who briefed journalists in Lagos on its plans to hold a summit on examination malpractice with theme: ‘Examination Malpractice: The Contemporary Realities and Antidotes’, said the reported cases of fraud for those whose results were withheld grew from 58, 494 in the May/June1993 WASSCE in Nigeria to 214,952 in 2017.
According to him, “Examination malpractice is a form of corruption; there are people who patronise the people who perpetrate this evil and that is why they have continued to be in the market. The council, in the five member countries, has introduced several measures, adopted various strategies and deployed technologies at great costs in the fight against the ever festering menace.â€
Research studies, he noted, had shown that one of the ways of curbing the worrisome trends in examination irregularities is by mounting public enlightenment campaigns to draw attention of the stakeholders in education and the public to the negative effects of examination malpractice on national development.
Uwadiae stressed the need for more enlightenment campaigns especially in churches and mosques to constantly remind children and adults of the negative effect of going into such act.
“People wants to reap where they did not sow. For us, the cost of conducting an examination has become so high; money that would have been used to take care of staff is going into conducting an examination. Our fight against the menace is yielding fruits but the more we fight, the more people perpetrate the criminal act,†the registrar said
He expressed concern that students are no longer learning, and people carry around certificates that they cannot defend, adding: “We are hoping that there will be less emphasis on certificates but the skill you are able to display.â€
Uwadiae, however, expressed hope that those who are in charge of executing the law would do it well so that anybody caught carrying out the act would be brought to book.
“Examination malpractice is a global thing today and all the five-member countries are going through the same thing. The lives of WAEC staff are being threatened, and for private candidates, some go into the examination hall with guns while the school candidates drug the food or drinks they give to supervisors. It is criminal,†Eguridu stressed.
Also, Emeritus Professor Pius Obayan is expected to give the keynote address at the two-day summit which will hold on October 19 and 20 at the Academy Inn and Multipurpose Halls, Agidingbi, Ikeja.
Other speakers are Professor Jonathan Fletcher from Ghana who will speak on ‘Examination Malpractice: A Threat to National Development’; Professor Jonas Redwood Sawyerr from Sierra Leone to speak on ‘Technology and Examination Malpractice’; a representative of ICPC Nigeria, Mr. Shintemap Binga, to speak on Statutory Provisions against Examination Malpractice, as well as Professor Pierre Gomez from The Gambia speaking on ‘International Collaborations in Curbing Examination Malpractice’
