NECO DECLARES TOTAL WAR ON EXAM MALPRACTICE, ROLLS OUT MEASURES TO CHECK MENACE 

The National Examinations Council (NECO) has stated that it is prepared to completely eliminate instances of exam fraud from all of its examinations.

This was announced by the Registrar and Chief Executive of NECO, Professor Ibrahim Dantani Wushishi, on Monday at a one-day sensitization workshop on examination malpractice in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. He called for coordinated efforts to address the issue.

Speaking on the theme of the workshop,’ The Role of Education Stakeholders in Tackling Examination Malpractice in Nigeria,’ Professor Wushishi said there is an urgent need to curtail the problem to ensure the all-round development of the country. “One of the biggest challenges bedevilling the conduct of public examinations now is the issue of examination malpractice.”

“This workshop is, therefore, both thoughtful and timely, and should address the ways and means that can be adopted to curb the menace and re-orient the minds of the youths concerning this cankerworm, as no nation develops when its youths indulge in sharp practices such as examination malpractice.”

“No doubt, examination malpractice has the tendency to discourage hard work among serious students, lowers educational standards, discredit certificates, and lead to the production of quacks, thereby affecting the manpower needs of the nation. We must therefore take collective responsibility to rid them of this bad habit of wanting to cut corners,” he said. Speaking further, the NECO boss said the Council has rolled out several measures to check the problem of malpractice in the conduct of all its examinations.

He listed the measures to include; Effective conduct of accreditation and re-accreditation exercises in schools, biometric data capturing of candidates to check impersonation of candidates registered for the examination and to help identify miracle centres where examination malpractice is perpetrated. Others are the use of officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to provide security at examination centres to prevent miscreants/agents of examination malpractice, provision of covert operations by officers of the Department of State Service (DSS) to guide against compromising examination through the internet, daily distribution of examination question papers and other sensitive materials, monitoring of marking exercise to ensure that best practices are observed, among others.

On his part, Akwa Ibom State governor, Udom Emmanuel, said his government has also declared zero tolerance for examination malpractice.Represented by Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Education, Idongesit Etiebet, the governor described exam malpractice as a social plaque and commended NECO for its efforts in rooting out the problem. He, however, lamented that many young Nigerians continue to devise various measures to perpetrate fraud during the examination.

“The practice of examination practice has refused to abate. The advent of social media has compounded the menace. Akwa Ibom has zero tolerance for examination malpractice and various measures have been put in place to check the menace,” he said.

The governor also revealed that his administration has spent over N1 billion for various examinations under the state free and compulsory education for primary and secondary schools.