WHEN the National Examinations Council released the results of its June/July 2019 Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination, many missed the big story of the spike in the recorded incidents of cheating. Of the total 1,151,016 candidates who sat the tests nationwide, 40,630 or 3.53 per cent were involved in malpractices, representing over 50 per cent increase on the number caught cheating last year, said NECO’s Acting Registrar, Abubakar Gana. The federal and state governments need to take extraordinary measures to stop the pervasive cheating that has eroded the quality of Nigeria’s academic certificates.
NECO’s results show a 71.59 per cent pass rate, with 829,787 candidates making five credits and above, including English Language and Mathematics. The number that made five credits, irrespective of these two subjects, was 1,041,986 or 89.9 per cent. While the general results look good to the examination body, the unfolding national tragedy of cheating requires more urgent attention from stakeholders. Cheating in examinations has assumed a peculiarly Nigerian dimension, a monster that the state has been unable to slay.
A month earlier, results of the West African School Certificate Examinations revealed even more troubling figures that should stir the national conscience: fully 180,205 candidates, representing 11.33 per cent of the total number of the 1,590,173 candidates that sat its May/June 2019 SSSCE examinations, had their results withheld for involvement in various forms of malpractices. The National Business and Technical Examinations Board uncovered 399 cheats out of the 55,532 candidates that sat the May/June NBC/NTC examinations, an improvement over the figure of 842 cheats caught during the 2018 edition.
Indeed, the scandal of cheating in examinations has run riot in Nigeria. At virtually all levels, it has become part of the national culture. The Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, mandatory for admission to universities, polytechnics/monotechnics and colleges of education, is so beset by cheating and therefore so discredited that tertiary institutions have to introduce post-UTME examinations or rigorous screening to ensure that only capable students gain admission. One rascal was caught registering 64 times in the last round of tests, while about 100 other suspects were arrested by security operatives nationwide. Experts say that “there is virtually no examination anywhere in Nigeria at all levels and outside the formal school system where there is no one form of illegal practice or another.”
A study summarised cheating to include collusion among students and between them and officials as well as impersonation and copying. But Nigerian cheats are brazen and ever more ingenious. The breakdown of moral values in the society and the excessive value placed on academic certificates as the sole yardstick for measuring qualification have seen the increasing involvement of parents and guardians in cheating. They buy leaked examination papers for their children and wards, pay “mercenaries” to take tests for them and pay teachers and invigilators to “help” them. Ishaq Oloyede, Registrar of JAMB, says cheats have gone scientific, deploying smart watches, smart phones, special calculators, special eyeglasses and biros. Nigeria, adds WAEC, consistently records the highest number of exam malpractices among the five member-countries of the body.
A change is imperative. Already, some foreign institutions have been insisting on their own tests to screen candidates with certificates from Nigeria. We must learn to enforce the law. While there is a strong need to review the Examinations Malpractices Act 1999 to spell stiffer penalties than the four-year jail term it prescribes for teachers, invigilators and officials who collude in cheating to a minimum of seven years, the urgent assignment for the authorities is strong law enforcement. The nonsense called “special centres,” where cheating is institutionalised, should be scrapped altogether by examination bodies.
Dealing with the problem should be a national emergency. In response to sophisticated cheating schemes in their countries, India, China and Singapore opt for strong laws and enforcement with the deployment of cutting-edge technology as the lodestone. India resorts to intrusive frisking of candidates, reported The Guardian of London, while China and Singapore field drones and other specialised electronic surveillance devices around test centres. In one case, a foreign cheat was deported from Singapore. Imposing penalties swiftly is critical. In 2016, China prescribed a seven-year jail term for cheating and deployed IT tools to scan students’ clothing, shoes and accessories. Drones were also flown over and around examination centres to detect and block wireless signals by crooked students. In 2018, China’s courts jailed six persons four years each for cheating at the national graduate school examinations. Such zero tolerance policies enable Singapore to retain the No.1 spot on the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment rankings, where Hong Kong, Japan, Estonia, Canada and Finland also excel.
There should be swift retribution for officials, educators and security men caught in exam malpractices racket. Vietnam’s government was ruthless after a cheating scandal in its 2018 high school exams. A senior police officer was stripped of his rank and prosecuted along with other officials arrested, with the prime minister personally coordinating the clean-up. Such high level resolve was also exhibited nearer home when, in 2015, about 200 persons, including police officers, were arrested and prosecuted in Kenya after a mass cheating scandal in that year’s schools examinations, the national examinations board was disbanded and some senior officials dismissed.
JAMB has shown the way recently by opting for technology to counter the cheats. Besides, it has ensured the trial and conviction of some cheats. Other examination bodies and education institutions should also be proactive. The Ministry of Education, ranked as the third most corrupt institution in Nigeria by SERAP in 2018, should be cleansed and the Minister, Adamu Adamu, should lead the way by initiating a strong anti-corruption sweep system-wide.
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