By Guest writer: Ebenezar Wikina
Who is an illiterate? The village farmer who cannot spell his name? Or the kid with a bucket of pure water on his head who cannot recite A,B,C to Z? Well, society calls these two people illiterates. But do you know they are not very different from some people that wear school uniforms and claim to be educated?
In July 2012 the Director General of the National Orientation Agency(NOA), Mr Mike Omeri, announced that Nigeria had been ranked number one on the World's examination malpractice Index (i.e Nigeria has the highest rate of examination malpractice in the world).
In the May/June 2012 School Certificate Examination conducted by NECO, a total of 615,010 cases of malpractice were recorded; a huge increase compared to 439,529 recorded cases in 2011--these figures represent the reported cases, imagine many other cases that were not reported. If nothing is done, the estimated cases will be up to 1,000,000 cases in 2013. And following the mass failure in the 2013 UTME exams, i think we really exceeded that figure.
What are we doing to our nation? Parents? Teachers? Exam board members? Students, what are we doimg to Nigeria?
These days students go into the examination hall full of confidence, not because they've spent nights burning candles to prepare for the exam. But because they know the evil invigilators will take a token to give them the answers to the questions they would be asked in the exam.
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| A Candidate downloading cheat-answers on a mobile phone |
Examination malpractice had drowned the Nigerian educational system and it's quickly destroying our future. It's defeating the goal of education which is to equip students(youths) with knowledge and skills to face many of life's responsibilities. Who will we blame in the future when we have a president that can't read his own speech? Who will be the teachers in future? Is it these same ones that copy to pass?
What has happened to self worth and Academic Integrity? Even the few students that have decided to stand their ground and write with their heads are treated harshly by invigilators... WAEC, JAMB, NECO and other examinations in Nigeria have now become a joke. What hurts most is that even the parents that claim to love their kids are now encouraging their kids to go on cheating. There's now too much emphasis on 'paper certificates' and 'grades' instead of the knowledge people are meant to acquire from school.
These days we have many university graduates that are illiterate of the field they just studied. Yet they'd have a first class, or a second class upper.
Money cannot buy knowledge, it will only buy you a good grade you can't defend. I pray our youths understand this fact. . . We say corruption is the main problem in Nigeria. But please don't forget that Examination Malpractice is the bedrock of corruption. Show me a student that'd pay five hundred to get an 'A grade in physics and I'll show you that same student ten years later looting from the national treasury. We better act before it is too late.
Join and support the campaign aimed that eradicating this menace from the society -- READnotRUNS.
You can know more about the campaign by checking our facebook campaign at www.facebook.com/READnotRUNS
Change a Child, and you can change the world.
Ebenezar Wikina is a writer, Spoken word artist, blogger, book activist/Education crusader, Online United Nations Volunteer, Talent activist and aspiring Biomimicry Professional (he's currently working towards setting up Biomimicry Nigeria; a new field of science that imitates nature to solve human problems). His love for ideas, creativity and innovation made him to be part of the Organizing Team of TEDx Stadium Road, the first TEDx event in the Niger Delta. He also works with UNESCO's Youth Peace ambassador for Nigeria, Akinyemi Oluwayinka John, and he believes the solution to Nigeria's impending problem is buried in her Youth and Children...
You can contact him via the following;
Twitter: @poeticjazz,
Facebook: www.facebook.com/poeticjazz
Email: ebenezarwikina@gmail.com
Images courtesy
Images courtesy
www.informationng.com
www.Jackophite.com
www.Jackophite.com
These practises and lamentations will continue until we decide to face the truth; that technical education should be encouraged and recognised in our society; that University entrance examinations should be handled by individual schols, that most importantly, parents should inculcate values in their children and not help them in the act of cheating.
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