By Tony Obiechina Abuja
The minister of education, Dr Tunji Alausa has vowed that henceforth, the issue of examination malpractices will be a thing of the past in Nigeria.
Speaking after receiving a report from the “Committee on the Improvement of Quality Examination in Nigeria,” on Friday in Abuja, Alausa described the current situation as “alarming.”
He highlighted that at least one out of four students score below 200 out of 400 in JAMB, with many others abandoning efforts to study for their exams.
The committee, headed by Prof Ishaq Oloyede, Registrar of Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) was tasked with the critical objectives of eliminating exam leaks and other forms of malpractice, and preventing identity theft during exams.
Alausa cautioned that allowing the trend of exam malpractice to persist risks producing a generation of millions of poorly educated teenagers, severely handicapping their future prospects.
He said: “They might have certificates like WAEC with numerous A1 grades, but they will not be critical thinkers or problem solvers, nor will they be equipped to make informed life decisions.
“We have no choice but to restore integrity to our examination system. Rather than facilitating malpractice, so-called ‘miracle centres’ should focus on providing quality education to students, thereby securing their future prospects.
“We must dismantle the entrenched ecosystem of cheating and exam malpractice that has developed over several decades, involving principals, teachers, invigilators, parents, and students.
“This committee has been working tirelessly for the past five months to address this issue, and I assure Nigerians that we will overcome this challenge and make exam malpractice a relic of the past.”
According to the Minister, the 17-member committee was deliberately composed of experts from all areas of the education system to provide a holistic solution to the issue of examination malpractice.
He said: “I want to assure the committee members that we have taken their recommendations seriously, and the government will implement every single suggestion.
“We believe all the proposals are practicable. Specifically, regarding the recommendation to swap invigilators, we will issue a memo to WAEC today, instructing them to implement this change starting Monday, and NECO will follow suit when their exams commence shortly.”
Responding, Prof. Oloyede, expressed gratitude for the opportunity to serve and commended the minister for his valuable input throughout the report’s drafting process.
Reading part of the report, Oloyede said: “The Committee recommends as follows: “All documents, including certificates, registration and result slips, etc., should contain NIN, photograph and date of birth to guard against identity theft and impersonation.
“All Invigilators and Supervisors must register through NIN and subscribe to the Examination body’s Short Code, using the same pattern of 55019/66019 of JAMB in order to track and have full information about the examination officials, including examiners, supervisors and invigilators.
“The Committee recommends that swapping of invigilators and supervisors, rather than candidates, should commence from the 2025 private SSCE. This decision follows strong objections from WAEC, NECO, NABTEB, and NBAIS regarding security, logistics, and the inclusion of centre details on candidate certificates.
“Furthermore, invigilators and supervisors should ideally be public officials or teachers on pensionable appointments, except where unavoidable. Examination halls must adhere to standard requirements, with a recommended seating arrangement of 1.5m x 1.2m or 1.8 square meters per candidate.
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“All examination halls and centres should be equipped with static CCTV cameras for surveillance and monitoring. Each centre should have a mini control room to monitor the CCTV feed for prompt alerts.
“The four examination bodies (WAEC, NECO, NABTEB, and NBAIS) should jointly invest in central control facilities to enhance efficiency and reduce costs. Additionally, body-worn camcorders should be deployed in examination halls and centres to ensure effective monitoring.”
The report further reads: “At the point of entry into Basic School, every pupil must generate a unique code which is linked to his/her NIN which must be identified with the pupil throughout his/her educational journey in Nigeria.
“The Federal Ministry of Education should interface with the National Assembly to enact an Act to establish a National Examination Malpractice Court/Tribunal for prompt prosecution of examination malpractices to serve as deterrent for others.
“The non-implementation of the 1999 Examination Malpractice Act suggests either a lack of political will or non-implementability. Consequently, the Committee recommends a review of the Act in such a manner that it can be immediately implemented to curb examination malpractice.
“The Committee endorsed the policy directive of the Honourable Minister that, rather than wait till 2027 as initially suggested, the CBE should be implemented for objective questions in 2025 private examinations and in full for school candidates in 2026.
“The 30% Continuous Assessment component in the Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations has become a veritable source of competition in the examination system due to the fraudulent process of inputting the scores in arrears.
“It is therefore recommended that the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council(NERDC) and any other FME agency, which mast have recommended the policy for the approval of the National Council on Education(NCE), should immediately be requested to review the Continuous Assessment System for the purpose of reducing or eliminating its abuse.”
