A lot of anomalies have been plaguing the educational sector in the Northern part of the country. Very crucial among them is examination malpractice; a repugnant act that needs a radical approach to tackle it for the development of our education.
The menace occurs in all the stages of education –primary, secondary and tertiary institutions.
Following its negative implications on the qualitative education that is supposed to be acquired by the youth, folding our arms without efforts to find a way out of it would set our education on the path of retrogression.
In Northern Nigeria today, a student can participate in examination malpractice through innumerable ways. One of them is by ‘collusion,’ whereby a student would copy directly from another candidate or by ‘impersonation’ whereby a student would employ someone to write the examination on his behalf, especially during final year exams such as WAEC or NECO. The most unfortunate is by ‘bribing’ teachers to secure question paper(s) before the examination.
But it’s a clear fact that the menace of examination malpractice among students in Northern Nigeria has etiologies that aggrandizes it. The first is fear of failure; that is when a student fears to fail the examination due to poor preparation or lack of proper teaching by the teachers.
Furthermore, bad teachers too contribute aggressively in promoting the menace. The fact is that, most teachers do not teach for passion, but for money and when that happens, they may not teach students very well to enable them pass exams creditably.
Bad governance, too, also contributes to exam malpractice, especially in public schools in Northern Nigeria. A teacher may not be able to teach properly due to the lack of teaching equipment and conducive learning environment that are supposed to be provided by government. Poor salary that can’t cater for the teacher’s needs is also another factor. In such conditions, the teacher lacks motivation to give his best. If he has his way, he would even join the exam malpractice bandwagon to make money.
The most unfortunate thing about exam malpractice is that candidates find it difficult to defend the results or the certificate. For instance a medical doctor with a medical certificate could end up killing patients in theatres because he lacks the knowledge to justify the certificate that he is parading. Also, a teacher flaunting an education degree certificate might be teaching tales of frogs and dogs. A politician, too, may not be able to speak good English in public, despite that he has a degree in English Language. So, where are we heading for? Are we on the path of progression or retrogression?
There is no problem that does not have a solution. So, examination malpractice must have a solution. If we start employing qualified teachers in schools to start teaching effectively, that is, teachers that teach for passion and not for money, examination malpractice would reduce and we can be said to be proffering solution in a way.
Also, electing competent leaders into offices could is another way out as such leaders would guarantee conducive learning environment and also provide necessary tools that could enhance teaching/learning processes.
Finally, examination malpractice can be curbed if government pays teachers enough salary that could cater for their needs. This would motivate them to put in their best and students would gain confidence through qualitative learning to write exams without recourse to malpractice.
Haneef Muhammad writes from Gombe State
