Disturbed by the high rate of examination malpractice amongst students, especially those in senior secondary, key stakeholders in the education sector have come up with ideas to curb the ugly trend.
Executive Secretary, National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC), Dr. Benjamin Abakpa hinted this while recieving the Kaduna State Commissioner of Education, Dr. Shehu Usman Mohammed on Wednesday, October 6, 2021.
TheFact Nigeria gathered that greedy teachers and examination officials encourage examination malpractices among students.
Dr. Abakpa who disclosed that the newly formed commission was saddled with the responsibility to prescribe the minimum standard for senior secondary schools said it was set up to monitor private and public schools alike.
He decried the high rate of examination malpractices in schools across the country and said if there was a data base of all the students, from admission to graduation, the menace would be greatly reduced.
They (Dr. Abakpa and Shehu) agreed that biometrics of all the students should be taken alongside all their details like continous assessment and examination results in each class attended.
Record of number of students in each class would also be monitored as they progress, if a sudden surge in the number of students in examination classes was noticed, it meant the students came to seek ‘miracle centers’.
The Executive Secretary, NSSEC was confident that with strict monitoring, sanity would return to the education sector. He said:
“If you see what happen in private schools and they excel, it is not that they have better teachers, it is just the monitoring components; proper supervision of the teachers and school administration, you see everybody on their toes, doing their job.
“Even the so called miracle centers,
If teachers teach a child very well, that child may have no need going to a different school to write certificate examination”, he explained.
Dr. Abakpa further said that the commission would look into private schools’ examination policies and if a school did not have the facilities to run a proper school, it would be asked to limit itself to the level it can operate.
He commended the Commisioner’s work so far and charged him to tackle the root cause of what was keeping children of school age out of school in his state, he said:
“At the beginning of Governor Nasir El-rufai’s tenure, he asked that the Almajiri’s be taken off the streets and enrolled in schools, but they are back on the streets. Find out what is bringing them back and tackle the root cause”, said the Executive Secretary, NSSEC.
