Exam Malpractice: Stakeholders Seek Stiffer Penalties For Offenders

Stakeholders in the education sector have called for stiffer punishment for culprits of examination malpractice in order to stop further spread of the menace.

The call was made in Abuja on Friday during a one-day National Sensitisation Workshop with the theme, ‘The Role of Education Stakeholders in Tackling Examination Malpractice in Nigeria’.

The workshop was organised by the National Examinations Council (NECO) in collaboration with the National Assembly, to sensitise Nigerians on the effect of examination malpractice.

The chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic and Secondary Education, Senator Akon Eyakenyi, lamented that examination malpractice is ruining the credibility of educational system, while calling for collective action to curb the menace before it causes full damage to the system.

“Examination malpractice is one practice that can completely ruin our education system of credibility. We, therefore, have a task to ensure that we rescue the soul of our educational system from the stretch hold of examination malpractice.

“It is the responsibility of every stakeholder in the education sub sector of our national economy to rise to the challenge of arresting the monster called examination malpractice before it causes more damage to our educational system.

“Managers of the education subsector should ensure the culprits should be punished and those who did well should also be appreciated to encourage them. Law enforcement and anti-craft agencies should continue to lay their helping hands and step up support for the fight against examination malpractice,” the federal lawmaker said.

Also speaking, the chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Basic and Secondary Education, Hon. Julius Ihonvnere, stressed that parents aiding and abetting exam malpractices are merely destroying the future of their children, while lamenting that in many schools there is absolutely no control.

“In fact, the school authorities connive with others to carry out these acts. As we speak, in my constituency, schools are correcting between 50-60 thousand for those who want to register for WAEC or NECO. For WAEC, the exam fee is N18,000 but they are correcting from N45000 to N6000.

“We need to design how we can bring these institutions down and sanctions must be very severe,” he said.

For his part, the Registrar/Chief Executive of NECO, Professor Ibrahim Dantani Wushishi, said one of the biggest challenges bedeviling the conduct of public examinations now was the issue of examination malpractice.

“Examination malpractice has the tendency to discourage hard work among serious students, lowers educational standards, discredit certificates, and lead to the production of quacks, thereby affecting the manpower needs of the nation.

“We must therefore take collective responsibility to rid them of this bad habit of wanting to cut corners,” Wushishi stated.