On Tuesday, the National Examinations Council (NECO) expressed its readiness to totally root out incidents of exam malpractice in all its examinations. Registrar /Chief Executive of NECO, Prof. Ibrahim Dantani Wushishi made this known at a one-day sensitisation workshop on examination malpractice held in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.He called for concerted efforts to address the problem.
Speaking on the theme of the workshop, ‘The Roles of Education Stakeholders in Tackling Examination Malpractice in Nigeria,’ Prof. Wushishi said there is urgent need to curtail the problem to ensure all-round development of the country.
“One of the biggest challenges bedeviling the conduct of public examinations now is the issue of examination malpractice.
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“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.
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Listing the measures to include: Effective conduct of accreditation and re-accreditation exercise in schools, biometric data capturing of candidates to check impersonation of candidates registered for examination and to help identify miracle centres where examination malpractice are perpetrated.
Others were 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.