By Babatunde Ayedoju

The 2022 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) was not without cases of misconduct, as the examination body announced the arrest of 10 supervisors across the country over examination malpractices.

The council blamed supervisors for recurrent malpractices during its examinations in the country, noting that most of those supervisors were not reliable.

While addressing newsmen in Abuja, the Head of Nigeria National Office of WAEC, Patrick Areghan, disclosed that the supervisors were arrested in Lagos, Kano, Bayelsa and Kaduna States.

Surely, examination malpractice is not a recent phenomenon in Nigeria, as several cases are recorded every year in both internal and external examinations at every level of education in Nigeria. Examination malpractices range from copying answers from another candidates, holding a conversation with another candidate while examination is going on and bringing cheat notes known as expo to the examination venue to hiring mercenaries.

Sometimes, there are cases of students being aided to answer questions by people who should actually be responsible for ensuring that there is sanity in the conduct of the examinations. To make this possible, there are allegations that the management of some schools compel students to pay a certain amount of money for those who will assist in solving questions for them.

There are also reported cases of roadside website operators who post the so-called expo on digital platforms, using it to deceive unsuspecting candidates and parents who pay for their wards to access such platforms. This happens despite the fact that the authenticity of such expo cannot be guaranteed.

There are two categories of people responsible for the proper conduct of an external examinations like WASSCE. They are invigilators are supervisors. Invigilators are teachers from that particular school, while supervisors are external officials, mostly teachers from another school.

In his disclosure, Areghan lamented that the examination body usually hired supervisors who were nominated by the various State Ministries of Education, and some of them were usually not reliable.

His words: “Our major problem lies with the supervisors as only few of them are reliable and it’s unfortunate these are the supervisors that were nominated by the various State Ministries of Education and we employed them.

“We don’t have the power to nominate any supervisors on our own. We only make use of credible teachers supplied to us by the ministry,” he said.

The WAEC boss lamented that “But for a mere pot of porridge, they sell their conscience and allow candidates to come into the examination hall with phones to snap question papers and post them on designated platforms. Some of the supervisors belong to syndicate groups that run the platform.

“The good news is we catch them and they don’t go unpunished, as we are working hand in hand with the Nigerian police.”

While the exam body decried the unprofessional conduct of supervisors and some other stakeholders who should ensure that there is sanity in the system, the Permanent Secretary at Federal Ministry of Education, David Adejo, expressed satisfaction with the process, saying the deployment of technology in the authentication of candidates had reduced malpractice.

“Malpractices can occur in the examination centres with the collision of the school authority. Biometric machines have reduced malpractice to the barest minimal, I will be surprised if I hear of any malpractice”, he said.

Speaking with The Hope, a student, Trust Oki, said that though some candidates in her centre attempted to cheat, the school’s management took steps to prevent them.

Another candidate who simply gave his name as Daniel said that candidates who cheated in his centre had their cheat materials seized and in some cases were made to fill a form.

A school teacher, Mr Odun Ofere, attributed the misconduct to the fact that some schools want to build names for themselves, thinking that the performance of their students in external examinations will affect patronage.

He also blamed it on pseudo parental care and compassion exhibited by invigilators who allow students to do whatever they like in the examination hall.

Ofere lamented “There’s no doubt that our external examinations these days are nothing but ‘a blot on the landscape of our educational system’. Most of the questions are already on the Internet before they are written. This apparently explains why some students come late to the examination hall. Disappointedly, the invigilator still allows such students into the exam hall.”

While noting that examination malpractice will encourage laziness and affect both the students and the school negatively, he recommended that schools should build self-reliance in their students and pay attention to staff welfare.

His words: “From the dawn to the dusk of every child in a school, it should be inculcated that students can sit, write exams and succeed by themselves. It is the incompetence of a school that makes them resort to cheating after the whole of six years their students have been with them. Why will a student cheat if they have got the adequate knowledge to pass the subject well? More attention should be given to students for effective and impactful teaching and learning rather than the fanfare schools waste time on.

“The good welfare of the staff members of any school is a keyplayer in determining the progress and advancement of every school. All school owners should take note. Motivate your staff; treat them fairly; build some respect for and around them; treat them as co-visioners rather than as some hopeless and hapless slaves; be generous to them and you will see that they will deliver their best to your students,” he added.