The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu has called on Examination and Assessment Agencies in the country to adopt ICT in tackling the menace of examination malpractices and build multi- dimensional approach to address the menace.
Adamu made the call at a one day national sensitization workshop tagged, “The Role of Education Stakeholders In Tackling Examination Malpractice In Nigeria” held in Lagos State.
According to the Minister who was represented by the Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, Nigeria is under developed in tackling issues of examination malpractices, hence the weaponising of exams to candidates was an unfair assessment.
“Examination malpractices is a major problem affecting the conduct of public exams in Nigeria and let me say that Nigeria is under develop in tackling issues of malpractices in our exams.
“ICT is the way to go in curbing this menace it has become most critical that we must adopt we must become creative in adopting ICT devices to protect the sanctity of our examinations across Nigeria”, he said.
On his part, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, Andrew Adejo called on the National Assembly to enact laws for sanctions on consequent actions.
According to him, complexities arose following the lost of core values in the country, “because we have forgotten our value system, they have collapsed and until we fix this, it may take a long time before the system recovers. We should look at the ways of correcting our value system”.
He suggested that culprit of examination malpractices be made to face the law and advocated for conducive learning environment.
He also called on government to prosecute offenders of examination malpractices while legislators enact laws that would stop the trend.
Deputy Chairman Senate Committee on Education, Senator Akon Eyakenyi, said the National Assembly frowns at Examination Malpractice and it hopes to tackle it with holistic mind.
“The Committee on Education (Basic & Secondary) is using this opportunity to appeal to stakeholders, particularly to the parents and teachers of the students to sensitize themselves to ensure the spirit of Examination Malpractice is thoroughly purged out from their lifestyle before sensitizing their children, wards or students as they are “In pari delicto” (equally at fault) by aiding and abetting these students”.
Senator Eyakenyi said to effectively tackle examination malpractices, there was a need for operators to collaborate with professional associations who wield certain levels of influence on their members.
She called on the government to hold private school operators to account while further challenging stakeholders to rise to the task of speaking out and taking informed decisions when and where needs arise.
“The media community should particularly lend its support to this patriotic fight. It is also my thinking that Monitoring and Evaluation should be taken seriously across board in the education sector. Supervision of both our learners and educators at all levels should be stepped up”, She added.
The Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Education (Basic & Secondary), Prof. Julius Ihonbere, called for collective responsibility to tackle problems of examination malpractices.
According to him, stakeholders must work together to produce results that will work for the betterment of the Nigerian education sector.
He acknowledged the efforts of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), in fighting malpractices in public examinations.
“Unless the nation addresses the issue of infraction in public exams the nation may not move forward. It is a criminal offence but it is disappointing that children are no longer afraid because for their participation in examination malpractices, there are no longer sanctions”.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Registrar of the National Examination Council (NECO), Prof. Dantani Ibrahim Wushishi, noted that the major challenge facing conduct of public examinations remained issues of examination malpractices.
He also said that the workshop was jointly organised with the National Assembly to address issues of exam malpractices.
Wushishi added that it was pertinent to find ways and means that could be adopted to curb the menace of examination malpractice and re orient the minds of the youths concerning the cankerworm.
“No doubt, 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.
He therefore, called for collective responsibility to rid them of the bad habit of wanting to cut corners.
The Head of WAEC Nigeria, Patrick Areghan, represented by Dr. Amos Dani commended NECO for advancing assessment to greater level.
He applauded the role of the National Assembly in tackling the examination malpractices menace.
Areghan disclosed that WAEC had begun the deployment of technology in the fight against exam infractions.
“WAEC has developed a technology called IDP to detect collisions in the objectives segment of our exams other technologies are being currently developed to tackle malpractices in our essay papers”, he informed.
The workshop was organised by the National Examinations Council (NECO) and the National Assembly.
