For the years that the law was in place, no exam cheat was tried under it. Though its provisions were harsh – 21-year-term without fine for those involved in exam malpractice – the law was not tested throughout its life. It has now been reviewed to provide for five-year term with an option of N200,000 fine for offenders
Will this provision succeed where its precursor seemed to have failed? This is the poser many are praying the law will unravel because of what they call the high rate of exam malpractice. They added that it has gone digital as candidatess use mobile telephone and other telecommunications devices to cheat at exams.
The Federal Government unveiled the review of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) Examination Malpractice Act before the 2013 November/December West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for private candidates started this month.
The former Minister of Education, Prof Ruqayyat Ahmed Rufa’i, announced the approval of the amendment of the WAEC Act, CAP W4 Laws by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on September 4.
Apart from the jail term and fine, candidates caught perpetrating examination malpractice will be debarred from taking the examination for two years.
Section 19(1) of the Act reads: “Such candidate shall not take or be allowed to take or continue the examination, in addition, he shall be prohibited from taking any examination held or conducted by or on behalf of the Council for a period of two years immediately following upon such contraventions and if a candidate aforesaid has already taken any papers at the examination, his result there from shall be cancelled.
“In addition, the candidate may be prosecuted and if found guilty shall be liable on conviction to a fine of N200,000 or imprisonment for a term of five years or to both such fine and imprisonment.”
The review of the Act may not be unconnected with the poor implementation of the former 21-year- penalty.
Whether the reduced term will be effective in deterring examination malpractice is an issue respondents do not agree on.
In interviews with The Nation, some candidates writing the ongoing November/December WASSCE, teachers and parents expressed doubts that the law will work. They suggested some other actions the government could take to guarantee enforcement of the new penalty.
A teacher at the Enugu State College of Education, Mr Emma Enenta believes the new law is “one of those white lie laws” which would not solve the problem but sustain if not aggravate it. He suggested that a special tribunal on the offence should be established in all the six geo-political zones and an agency similar to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) put in place to back the law.
Another teacher with a federal institution, Mr Leo Nwaosuagwu responded with a question: “Who are the main culprits? Are they not the children of the high in society? They make the law to suit their whim and caprice. The first law which was more severe could not work due to the interventions of the highly – placed because the culprits are their children and wards.”
He also called for a special task force and special court to try offenders. The names of such offenders, he said, should be made public in the print and electronic media, as the Ghanaian National WAEC Office did last year.
For the law to work, Isiaka Sulaiman, who just completed his secondary education at Mandate Private School in Akesan a Lagos suburb, said the current leaders must leave power.
The 17-year-old said: “I think the five-year jail term will work but not when the present leaders are there. There is too much corruption. Perhaps if they give the youths the chance to lead, it will work out.”
“An accountancy graduate, who simply gave his name as Tochukwu did not mince words in saying that, no law can stop examination malpractice in Nigeria because “most people are involved. The police are involved, the lawyer is involved, even you journalists are involved.”
He relived how a secondary school principal wanted to contract him to sit for mathematics for his son. “I thought the man wanted to set me up initially, but when I realised he was serious about it, I had to avoid him. And I am sure some other person did it for him. So, you can see that almost every body is involved in the malpractice. Parents these days contribute money to principals of their children’s schools during examinations to allow their children free rein to cheat.”
Rev Pius Owhofa, a teacher at St Brigids Grammar School in Aba, Abia State, said the measure might prove effective if the display of wealth is frowned on.
A pupil, Nnamaka Nwakobia, said many pupils were desperate to get into the university and would do anything, including cheating to succeed. She added that such pupils are not bothered by the policy.
A parent, Mr. Onyeobi Chekwube, described as okay the reduction in jail term, saying if the death penalty did not eliminate armed robbery, there was no basis to expect that the 21-year jail term for exam cheats would be effective.
He advocated a moral rebirth by Nigerians to stem moral decadence, which according to him, is the bane of society.
“School authorities must do all they can to maintain high moral standards,” he said.
In Rivers State, like in many other places, some candidates told The Nation they were not even aware of the new penalty.
A candidate said: “Right from time, penalties have always been there, yet those who want to cheat would cheat.
“If nobody was convicted when the penalty was 21-year jail term, is it the five-year jail term or payment of N200, 000 fine that would scare them?”
They said the way exam malpractice is done these days is such that only those involved would understand it because the invigilators are ‘settled’.
“Once you settle the invigilators and policemen very well, they will look the other side while we do whatever we want to do. They even alert us when supervisors are coming. Money speaks in Nigeria and that is why you might not hear of any candidate being caught in this exam,” a source said.
Since candidates do not indulge in examination malpractices without the connivance of invigilators and supervisors, Mrs Fatimo Bimbo Monayajo, Proprietress of SoundHope International Academy in Gbagada, a Lagos suburb, said they should not carry the can alone. She said teachers, principals and schools found culpable should also be penalised.
“I don’t think the fault is just the candidates: I believe that it lies with parents and the school if a candidate should cheat, he does not do it alone. The invigilator, supervisor, school owner or principal are all involved,” she said.
An invigilator in one of the WASSCE centres in Aba alleged that many teachers lobby to invigilate or supervise exams because they see it as an avenue to make money – a practice she said is not in the interest of the children and their academic growth.
Obelle O. Obelle, a remedial centre proprietor in Aba, said many teachers help candidates cheat because they are poorly paid, adding that if that is not addressed, they would still take risks to continue such acts.
He said: “In Nigeria, you will find out that most university graduates who teach in private schools are underpaid. You pay a graduate with BSc, B.A or B.Ed N10, 000. What will the money solve for him or her? If there is any opportunity for him or her to supervise during WAEC exams or become an internal invigilator in a particular school and somebody walks up to him and says, ‘sir or ma I have N5, 000, please allow me do this’, and at the end of the day he is able to make N5000 as profit, what do you think will happen when he doesn’t have such amount of money in his account? He can’t go hungry, definitely he will compromise.”
With the law reviewed at the start of the 2013 WASSCE, The Nation visited some centres to monitor its effect. Checks by our correspondents revealed that the examination was orderly in many centres in some states like Abia, Delta, Lagos and Rivers. But it is difficult to determine whether the orderly conduct of the candidates was a consequence of the new penalty or the efforts of the various state governments to curb examination malpractice.
The Delta State government has introduced stringent measures, such as, withdrawing licences of private schools that aid malpractices to scrutiny before new schools are given licence to curb exam malpractice.
The licences of over 600 private schools were revoked recently over what the Delta Ministry of Basic and Secondary education termed lack of a conducive environment for learning.
In several centres in Asaba, the state capital, The Nation visited during the Mathematics paper, the examination went without incident.
In Lagos State, supervisors and invigilators in public schools were strict in some centres because the government’s handling of its employees who connived with candidates to perpetrate examination malpractice in the May/June WASSCE.
Many teachers in Lagos public schools are aware that in July, the state government retired nine senior officers between Levels 8 and 17 found to have assisted candidates during the May/June WASSCE at the Lagos State Civil Service Model College, Igbogbo, Ikorodu in connivance with some ad-hoc staff of WAEC.
A statement from the Ministry of Information said the nine officers, including the principal and vice-principal, were recommended for retirement by a Personnel Management Board “based on investigations which revealed that the affected nine teachers and other ad-hoc staff of WAEC were directly assisting students in solving questions on Thursday, May 30, 2013, the day Mathematics was written for the 2013 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).”
A Lagos resident and Quality Control Manager of Sunflower Hygiene Ltd, Mr I.K. Adesanya, said one of his workers who is writing the ongoing November/December WASSCE lamented that his Ijegun centre supervisor, a Level 17 teacher, was too strict because of the incident at Igbogbo.
Recounting the story, Adesanya said: “He said the woman that invigilated them was very strict and did not allow any cheating. She sent away other invigilators that had planned to cooperate with the candidates; she called the police to drive them out of the examination venue because she did not want anybody to rubbish her career at Level 17. My worker said had he known, he would not have gone to that centre because the woman spoilt his plans. At least it would encourage Nigerian students to improve their reading habit.”
When The Nation visited the United High School, Ikorodu centre, the supervisor said he was drafted to the centre because of the Igbogbo incident and he did not condone examination malpractice.
In centres visited in Aba, including St. Joseph’s College and Girls’ Commercial Secondary School, candidates hailed the quality of supervision.
In Rivers State, the efforts of the commissioner of Education, Dame Alice Lawrence-Nemi, in curbing examination malpractices appear to be paying off.
She has adopted measures that made exam malpractice to drop from 33.18 per cent in 2009 to about 20.83 per cent in 2010. In 2011, it dropped to 8.80percent. Several policies including discouraging candidates resident outside the state from coming to write their exams there are helping to reduce exams malpractice.
A ministry of education worker told The Nation that “by the time you see the statistics for that of last year, you would know that nothing like exam malpractice goes on in Rivers state anymore.”
To stop examination malpractice, Mrs Helen Oghu who teaches in a private secondary school in Port Harcourt said government should improve education.
“All that is required to stop exam malpractice in this country is for government to come up with good education policies, train and re-train teachers, just like the Rivers State government is doing. Though I am not under the state government but I know that what they are doing is reducing exam malpractices in the state,” she said.
