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By Prof. Owolabi Hakeem
It will be sycophantic to say that we do not know that there is a huge heap of mess around education today in Nigeria.
It will be a disservice to anything called sincerity to say that our education is not surrounded by ubiquity of messes
It is obvious and noticeable that around our education that it is mess-crowded.
What are the mess around it? The mess around it ranges from tiny acts of mess to mountain of mess and as much as we can feel, see and experience.
It has gone so bad today that, the age of learners does not matter and anyone can be in any class with a clear disregard for the age which is an important factor.
We have condescent so lowly today and have stooped to the valley levels that teachers, parents, examination officials, and even law enforcement agents do not see the solving of examination problems by parents for this young lads as a taboo. Parents, teachers and even owners of schools have chosen to connive to promote and make pupils see what they did not them as ‘help’
It has gone very awry at the secondary school level of our education , yes, it has gone awry because it appears inseparable with the all players and perpetrators developing tricks and ways to perfect this act.
Teachers, examination officials and students who are examination candidates, join up to enjoy the ‘sweet’ outcomes of cheating for these young ing people
Law enforcement agents who are expected to enforce the rules, are big players in the acts that constitute mess around our education
The strong concern and deep understanding of acts that constitute malpractise known with examination officials have been eroded overtime and thrown to the background and tagged as ‘small help’
When parents themselves openly demand places where candidates are given help and support.
When examination officials demand bribes to ignore the acts of malpractice and misconduct during such examinations
The patrolling police are not in anyways looking for a way to get culprits nor offenders, but kept the patrol tempo high, to catch a scapegoat and extort money from such scapegoat and not more of using such arrest as a deterrent for a discontinuity in the act
It is not therefore a difficult experience to have students going about with gold result but undefendable when the need for that arises.
Before examination starts, or even days before most external examinations; it is ‘usual’ and normal to find that questions for the examinations have gone viral.
As said earlier too, coming across infants in the hall for examination to also write is ubiquitous today.
You will not have to go too far to find a primary four pupil being given admission into a secondary school even when it is clear that the candidate is underaged for the class
During examination, particularly external examination, it is easy to find that the marker board also plays another roles of being used to tell or pass answers to the candidates in the hall.
There are many ways answers are passed to these brainwashed candidates, from writing on the laps, stuffing pages of textbooks in the wig, pocket and around the socks. Some other time, against the orders of the examination body, candidates are allowed to bring in telephones and pick calls
If this is not what you have seen, or the person involved cannot get people to work for him, it is possible to find certificate purchased and all records of making it authentic will be given to the certificate
When will this mess begin to do away with us.
Every hand must be on the deck
Schools, management and parents should do a rethink and know that the earlier we allow performance to be measured by ability the better for our schools and their own earnings
Examination bodies should move in the direction of digital engagement or make examination totally Computer-based test.
The earlier we turn a good leaf, the better it is for us to reverse the varying negative trend we are confronted with in Nigeria today and these are the cases of collapsed buildings, medical errors, dispensation catastrophe, bank immorality and many more others
We can do it, and it should start today and
