70% reduction in exam malpractice possible with more resources

Education experts and civil society organisations (CSOs) have recommended increased resource availability and teacher supervision to curb examination malpractices in Nigeria by 70 percent.

At a stakeholders’ forum co-hosted by the Policy Innovation Centre and FCT Secondary Education Board, experts stressed that examination malpractice in secondary schools requires a collective solution, involving government, parents, schools, and students.

Programmes Officer Accountability Lab Nigeria, Shiiwua Mnengi who noted that the government was not doing enough in terms of funding of the education sector to ensure availability and deployment of necessary resources to schools, warned that examination malpractice was a monster gradually eating up the country.

The Guardian reports that examination malpractice has been a persistent issue in Nigeria since 1914, with experts describing it as a ‘cankerworm’ deeply embedded in the education system.

To combat this, Mnengi’s warning highlights the urgent need for increased funding to ensure schools have necessary resources.

He said: “I can tell you that the government is not doing enough for two reasons; It’s not doing enough in terms of the resources that are deployed to the schools, it is not doing enough in terms of monitoring how these resources are utilised and I think this is where the major gap lies.

“If the resources are adequately provided, their utilisation is monitored and other resources including the human resource, which are the teachers are supervised to ensure that they do the needful, we may have reduced examination malpractice by 70 or more percent.”

Mnengi, a fellow with Behaviour Insight Network Transparency and Accountability (BINTA), called for a collaborative effort by the government, education administrators and parents, to protect the future of the Nigerian society

“Government from its ministries, the regulators, examination bodies, the teachers, the students and the parents are owed duty of examination malpractice and so on the part of government, it will be my recommendation that it should improve not just its funding of education, but also make sure that the funds made available to the schools are utilised in terms of providing all the learning materials and necessary things that the student need for their better performance.

“For the parents, it is high time we begin to look at not just the results and grades the students are coming up with, but emphasis should be on the knowledge they are able to demonstrate,” he said.

On her part, Deputy Director Exams, National Examination Council of Nigeria (NECO) Toyin Adeoye, traced the worsening state of examination malpractice to the proliferation and high demands on private schools occasioned by the fall in the quality of education in public schools.

“30 years ago, there was no private secondary but gradually our government schools went down when it came to standard, and the private people hijacked the rich people; private schools started coming up. It was at that time that examination malpractice actually skyrocketed,” he said.

“After investing money, most private schools want profit so all they are after is get the job done to get more more students for their schools. Anyhow the result is gotten doesn’t matter, as long as there’s evidence that they are doing well in that school so that more students can come in.

“Government schools are not well funded and that is why teachers are not doing their best. Because they are not properly paid, they are looking for other means and as a result, students are not well taught.

“Let’s go back to the drawing board, let us put our school back on standard, government should put in more money in public schools increase the salary of staff, make staff more comfortable because most of the examination supervisors we see collaborating with schools to carry out malpractice are looking for an extra set of income”.