Sir: The recent comment by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) that school administrators are responsible for examination malpractices is like running away from the main issue. About 14 years ago I was involved in supervision of the school certificate examination under WAEC. With what I saw, I wish to say that the root of the failure and flagrant misconduct in examinations is from WAEC.
The WAEC officials are as corrupt as the school heads and teachers. Examination malpractice is a network and a collaborative action between WAEC staff, school heads, principals and supervisors. After all, it takes two to tango. I agree that there are other principal agents in this malaise like parents, community leaders, ministry of education officials etc. WAEC is the owner of the exam and they should take responsibility for any failure. It is their duty to ensure proper supervision and the deployment of men and women of integrity on the field. Most WAEC field officers are simply corrupt and are just out to make money.
I remember an instance when I supervised the exam. On arrival at the school, the school principal welcomed me thus “ we treat our supervisors well, sir I will like to know your terms.” He spoke to me as if it was a normal thing and I later discovered that it was really a normal thing for them. On further discussion, I learnt that most supervisors who had come earlier and even WAEC officials had their terms and were “treated well”. WAEC should mobilise credible and sufficient manpower to the field as supervisors and appropriate sanction should be meted out to defaulting ones. That means, strategies have to be in place to monitor their conduct.
I strongly believe that if WAEC officials do their job well, it will go a long way to check exam malpractice. I must say that one of the things that gives school heads and teachers the boldness to continue in this act is the moral failure of WAEC officials. In the exam malpractice network are supervisory agents from state’s ministries of Education.
There are another set of people government must handle squarely. Schools should only nominate teachers of integrity and repute for supervision not those who can make returns to school heads.
There should be very stringent penalty for schools and head of schools involved in exam malpractice. Its a shame to see cases where teachers write on the board for students or dictate answers to them on exam day. If a school is closed down for such an act, I am sure it will serve as a deterrent to others.
The question is, have WAEC in collaboration with the appropriate bodies come up with well defined and actionable policies to curbing exam malpractice? Charity, they say, begins from home. Let WAEC clean her house first before spreading the dragnet to others. This is not the time to pass blames. They must take responsibilty as the body empowered to conduct and supervise the Senior School Certificate Examination Pragmatism and leadership is required at this time from WAEC. The future of Nigeria’s educational sector is on the precipice and to salvage it, WAEC must play her statutory role well.
Alexander Ighoro
Warri, Delta State
