Rampant cases of examination malpractices across the country at all levels is one feature of the challenge of perverse values confronting Nigeria today. An instant of this menace was the decision of the Rivers State government to demote 14 principals of public schools as well as withdraw the operational licenses of 21 private schools over their alleged involvement in examination malpractices. Following a letter to the state ministry of education by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) listing 35 schools delisted for malpractices during the 2021 WAEC examinations, the state commissioner for education, Professor Kanye Ebeku, said “For all principals who are still in service and who superintended at the time this situation arose, we have directed that they be demoted. For all schools that are found in the list, we have directed that their licenses to operate be withdrawn forthwith”.
Even though the state government deserves commendation for not glossing over this indictment of staff and schools by WAEC and taking punitive action against the culprits, we do not believe it has gone far enough. So serious has the pandemic of examination malpractices become that mere demotion of staff or withdrawal of operational licenses amounts to no more than a slap on the wrist. Examination malpractice is a criminal infraction that should attract the full weight of the law. Officers who are demoted will remain within the system and, with time, ascend on their career path. Proprietors of schools that have their licenses withdrawn can register new schools and continue their atrocities. This is why, as experts have said, the offence of examination malpractice under the law is not treated as a misdemeanour but as felony.
Consequently, the Examination Malpractices Act, Cap E15, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, not only stipulates offences that constitute examination malpractice but also outlines penalties ranging from three to five years imprisonment, with or without the option of fine. It would be a grievous error for this crime to be treated with kid gloves. For, at the root of the penchant for perpetrating electoral malpractices is the pervasive perversion of societal values such that people seek to reap where they have not sown as well as enjoy short cut to success without the requisite hard work.
On the part of the students, the lazy and indolent ones who have not invested the necessary time in diligent studies, seek to pass in flying colours either by fraudulently obtaining question papers in advance, copying from the more serious students in the examination hall or getting others to write the examinations for them. Similarly, teachers who have not done enough to prepare their students for success seek to take deceptive pride in having produced students who perform excellently in examinations, thereby enhancing their prospects of career progression. And schools seek to acquire the prestige that comes with their students performing brilliantly in examinations, which is the genesis of the so-called ‘miracle examination centres’ that candidates spend a fortune to enroll and take their examinations in.
Examination malpractices defeat the fundamental purpose of examinations, which is to offer the best and most accurate, objective measurement and evaluation of the mastery by students of a given subject matter. Students who pass examinations through fraud thus hold certificates that are not a true reflection of their knowledge and competence. Some studies have shown that these could later have dangerous implications for society. Imagine a situation where Ill-trained architects or engineers supervised building construction; or incompetent pharmacists prescribe drugs for patients. We know these could cause problems for the society.
It is unfortunate that things have degenerated so badly that many parents are known to actively aid their children or wards in perpetrating examination fraud by procuring examination papers in advance, bribing teachers and invigilators to permit fraud or getting proxies to write examinations for them. What matters is the end of obtaining certificates no matter how fraudulent the means and the larger society is the worse for it.
This is just as a not insignificant number of parents are also known to encourage and support their children to seek to get rich quick through high tech cybercrime popularly known as ‘yahoo yahoo’. All of these are redolent of a society in the throes of a cancerous crisis of values. Quite apart from forcefully applying the sanction of law for criminal infractions such as examination malpractices, there is also the urgent need for a mass enlightenment and reorientation campaign to inculcate new, more wholesome and life-enhancing values in the citizenry.