It may be end of the road for perpetrators of examination malpractices in National Examinations Council (NECO), as its Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, Prof. Dantani Wushishi, intensifies measures to sanitise the council, Frank Ikpefan reports.
The National Examination Council (NECO) has begun moves to clean up its examination process and ensure the sanctity of its examinations and results.
Last month, the council announced plans to blacklist 52 supervisors who colluded with others to perpetrate mass cheating during the conduct of this year’s Internal Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE).
About 93 schools were found to have engaged in whole-school (mass) cheating during the conduct of the examination.
The NECO’s Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, Prof. Dantani Ibrahim Wushishi, said these while announcing release of the examination results, adding that the erring schools would be invited to the council’s headquarters in Minna, the Niger State capital, for discussion while appropriate sanctions would be applied against those found culpable.
The NECO boss said 12,030 candidates, representing 0.07 per cent, were involved in various forms of malpractice, showing a slight reduction in cases of malpractice, better than the 2022 results which recorded 13,594 candidates involved in various acts of malpractice.
The registrar noted that the malpractice cases showed that 3,962 of them were detected at marking venue, including copying “foreign materials”; 2,353 students were involved in collusion; 1,975 students were involved in impersonation; and 1,813 others were involved in aiding and abetting, seeking and receiving help from non-candidates.
Challenge of protecting examination process
Protecting the sanctity of the nation’s examination process has continued to be a big challenge for examination bodies like NECO and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board.
Despite the introduction of reforms by these bodies, examination malpractice remained a daunting task.
For example, parents who are desperate to have their children secure good grades to boost their entry into the nation’s tertiary institutions collude with supervisors and school owners to perpetrate examination malpractice.
Schools designated as ‘miracle centres’ usually collect what they term as ‘logistics’ from candidates, ranging from N10,000 to N30,000, depending on the school for which the examination bodies organised the examinations.
Once the supervisors and invigilators, who are ready to compromise are settled with the proceeds of logistics collected from candidates, they look away from whatever is happening in examination halls, while the teachers write answers on the boards for the students to copy.
Some candidates also freely go in with ‘missiles’ in form of textbooks, prepared answers in case of leaked papers and other ways of cheating.
The consequences of this hydra-headed challenge are enormous.
According to Head of Programmes, Monitoring, a non-governmmental organisation committed to the enthronement of transparency in government, Uadamen Ilevbaoje, “examination malpractice compromises the integrity and fairness of assessments; undermines the efforts to foster a skilled workforce and erodes the public trust in the education system.
“That’s why we need far-reaching measures that will help protect the integrity of our examinations at all costs. Because once this is done, our results will be respected globally. “
UNESCO’s survey on examination malpractice
A report by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) indicated that examination malpractice had increased by five percent in Nigeria, according to a survey by the Exam Ethics Marshals International.
The report stated that 18 out of every 100 people who participated in examinations in Nigeria in 2012 were indicted for malpractices.
Also, a former registrar of NECO, Professor Charles Uwakwe, had revealed that 1,283,485 candidates committed examination malpractice during the Senior School Certificate Examination from 2010 to 2016. About 7,410,030 candidates sat for NECO examinations within the same period.
Tackling the menace at NECO
Prof. Wushishi, who himself is a professor of Science Education, said a number of measures had been put in place by his administration to reduce the incidents of malpractices during the council’s examinations.
He listed the measures rolled out by the council as including: effective conduct of accreditation and re-accreditation exercise in schools, biometric data capturing of candidates to check impersonation of candidates registered for examination and to help identify miracle centres where examination malpractices are perpetrated.
Others are: use of officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to provide security at examination centres, and to prevent miscreants/agents of examination malpractice, provision of covert operations by the officers of the Department of State Service (DSS) to guard against compromising examination through the internet, daily distribution of examination question papers and other sensitive materials, monitoring of marking exercise to ensure that best practices are observed, among others.
He maintained that the indigenous examination body would not tolerate actions that would undermine the integrity of its examinations across the country, including examination malpractice.
Expressing the council’s readiness to totally root out incidents of examination malpractice in all its examinations, Wushishi also called for concerted efforts to address the menace headlong.
He said: “One of the biggest challenges bedevilling the conduct of public examinations now is the issue of examination malpractice”.
The NECO boss added, “Education is very important and one major important measure that we have put in place to stop the issue of examination malpractice is awareness.”
Introduction of e-verify portal for all NECO results.
The council also introduced the e-Verify,’ an online result verification solution that guarantees instant authentication of academic and basic information about prospective candidates.
The Programme Assistant on Education, YouthHubAfrica, Peter Ogah, praised the registrar, saying that the platform will ease the verification of results, and checkmate manipulation and falsification of results of examinations conducted by the council.
Other reforms by the council
Since his assumption of office on July26, 2021, Wushishi has also undertaken a critical assessment of the activities of NECO and initiated policies that have brought about positive turnaround at the council.
Specifically, stakeholders lauded the registrar for NECO Warehouse and the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Department, which has been extended to Niger State NECO Office, in addition to a brand new 500 KVA transformer in both ICT Department and the Niger State Office to address their problem of lack of electricity which has been on since 2017.
It will be recalled that since taking over as NECO registrar, Wushishi initiated a transformation agenda of the council which has changed the Council’s Headquarters in Minna, which hitherto was like a dungeon, is now a sight to behold at night, as it is now well lit.
In response to the realities of the 21st Century, where technology is key, the registrar has caused the provision of internet facilities at the headquarters.
A massive mast has been installed pursuant to making internet facilities easily accessible in the council.
This provision, Wushishi has assured stakeholders, would soon be extended to all the state offices across the country. This was equally extended to ICT Department, NECO Staff School and Niger State.
Stakeholders have furthermore lauded Wushishi’s transformation, which also ensured that the 2023 SSCE NECO Internal was certified the best in recent times.
An official of the council said the upgrade of the Six Zonal Offices of the council located in the North-East; North-West; North-Central; South-East; South-South; and the South-West hitherto headed by Zonal Coordinators, which have all been upgraded to directorates with a director appointed to superintend each of them has eased the operations of the council.
He said the upgrade has given rise to expansion in the system with each zone having four divisions headed by Deputy and Assistant Directors.
He said: “This expansion has, no doubt, opened up the space for higher responsibilities and provided more hands to be part of the management process, making it more expansive and robust in scope.”
On welfare, he said the retirement benefit package took effect from January, 2022 and an insurance policy for all staff is a welcome development.
An activist, Ola Aina commended the council for successfully pursuing and securing intervention fund from the Federal Government to settle examiners, supervisors and other ad-hoc staff that participated in the 2021 SSCE Internal examination and successful conduct of October 2021 and 2022 edition of Accreditation and Re-accreditation of schools for BECE and SSCE as well as that of the March and October 2022 edition.
The council under Wushishi has also provided an e-library to enhance access to information and data on educational assessment with a view to enhancing job efficiency in Test Development, Quality Assurance and curbing examination malpractice and other infractions associated with public examinations in 2022.
Similarly, it introduced the use of stanine software in determining Grade Boundaries for BECE, SSCE Internal and SSCE External examinations, which is an innovation in the history of NECO. This brings to rest the use of manual methods in determining grade boundaries in 2022, among others.
Also, for the first time, the welfare package instituted by the registrar/CE in 2021 for retiring staff has been implemented through payment of retirees of the year 2022 1st and 2nd quarters.
Wushishi also undertook advocacy visits to the government and the people of Ebonyi, Cross River and Borno states as part of his ongoing efforts to enlist the support of the state governments in tackling some of the challenges impeding the conduct of hitch-free examinations across the nation, including the issue of examination malpractice and making NECO examination compulsory in public schools across the states.
In Ebonyi and Cross River states, the registrar sought and got approval from the governors of the states for NECO examinations to be made compulsory in all public schools, while a similar response is being awaited from Borno State.
It is believed that with some of these bold steps, Prof. Wushishi is positioning the examination body for better performance and contributions to national development.
