The immediate past Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Arc. Sonny Echono, has described as alarming and a sign of danger the level at which examination malpractice has eaten into the fabric of the education sector.
Arc. Echono decried the level of rot in the nation’s education system, stating that the sector was at risk. He said, “If at the foundation level we are cheating to gain admission and certificates, then we are in trouble. We need to act now or our certificates would become worthless in the long run.”
He however enjoined all stakeholders to ensure that the future of the Nigerian Child was safeguarded. He charged the Examination Bodies in the country to take a cue from the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in the fight against examination malpractice.
Addressing some critical stakeholders in the education sector as well as Heads of institutions and examination bodies at a Special Two-day Retreat on A’Level Examinations organised by the Board, Arc. Sonny Echono, pointed out that a detection system needs to be put in place to detect and nip these sharp practices in the bud before they destroy whatever gains had been hitherto recorded in the education sector.
He noted that investigations by diverse agencies had revealed the presence of examination cartels that had penetrated major examination bodies there by undermining many of their operational processes. He described as disheartening the revelations that many parents had been found culpable as they had, out of desperation to secure high scores for
their wards, paid humongous sums of money to these examination cartels.
“It has been revealed that a lot of parents are not teaching their children good morals as these children are being exposed to a society where one no longer needs to read to get good grades as all one needs is to pay and secure any chosen grades.” He said.
Similarly, the Council Chairman, National Open University of Nigeria(NOUN) and Chairman, JAMB Equal Opportunity Group (JEOG), Prof. Peter Oke bukola, called for more proactive measures to tackle the menace of examination malpractice which, according to him, had spread to almost all spheres of national life.
This is according to the report which was published in the weekly JAMB bulletin on Monday 17 January.