EXAMINATION MALPRACTICE AND THE 5YEAR JAIL TERM Just this morning I got to really understand that the 5year jail term for examination malpractice in Nigeria was basically for WAEC. It is in reference to the review of WAEC Act of 2004. The punishment states follows; “If anyone is caught in the act of cheating (leaking papers, impersonation, using expo) in the course of the exam, the person shall be sentenced to 5year imprisonment or pay a fine of N200,000 or both. And the person will be disqualified from writing the exam in the next 2 years”. Yes, it is a laudable development, but I have some critical comments to this. Why was the law not extended to examination in general in Nigeria, like in tertiary institutions, and other exams that seek to test a candidate? Is it the student alone that should pay the price for cheating? Where is the punishment for the schools, proprietors, principals and teachers that get involved in such malpractice? Because I use to know that some have what we call “special centres” Isn’t 5years as a punishment too much? Also, the case of disqualifying the person from writing the exams in the next 2 years is not nice. This making it 7years as a punishment. Looking at the implications, you will have more youths who would be armed robbers, security threats to this nation and constituting a problem to Nigeria’s economy, as a result of dropping out from school after such punishment. Have we really addressed the problem, especially corruption? Because I know that a student cannot manufacture the question paper, but someone working in the WAEC office takes a bribe to get such paper released. Hope it’s not a law that will only end up punishing the poor, thereby making the rich wiser in their actions. Because the courts and panels in Nigeria can’t be trusted. Have we looked at the problem of education in Nigeria and it’s decline. For if a student is taught in the proper facilities, having a good library, labs, and the materials to learn he would be encouraged to do so. In addition, we have not taught of the caliber of teachers we have in these schools, are they the right people for the job or just after the pay that comes. SUGGESTIONS These issues and many other are the loopholes in such a law. I have not raised them so as to insult the efforts made, but would like to suggest what should be proper after reasoning on this. To me, the proprietors, principals and teachers should also face the law, if possible a severe one. Also, the institution can be shut down so as to pass a warning message to future offenders. In addition, the 5year jail term for me is TOO MUCH. Rather it can be 1year or 18months, with the recommendation of hard labour in one of the technical institute that will ignite the passion of going back to school. The idea of 2yrs disqualification can be scrapped. Furthermore, stricter examination security of the question papers could be made. For instance, having question types and seeing that at least in a hall, the students have different question papers to answer. Furthermore, more should be invested in education, let’s not only look at chunking out secondary school leavers who become nuisance in the tertiary institutions. There should be a reorientation of the Nigerian students, because at such a tender age, they still have the passion to be someone in life. Let it be the job of the teachers, 2mins before or after the class to talk sense (motivation) to their students, with this, we re-mould the minds of these students and discourage them from examination malpractice. Finally, the law should cut across all sects of the society, in so far as examinations are written there.
Posted on: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 15:51:10 +0000
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