BY IKENNA ASOMBA

Saddened by the rising spate of exam malpractice perpetrated by students during national examinations conducted by examination bodies such as Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC), the National Business and Technical Education (NABTEC) and the National Examination Council (NECO), the  upper chamber of the National Assembly (Senate), last February, banned the existence of special centres otherwise referred to as ‘miracle centres.’

Amidst this bold step, investigation by Quadlife last week, revealed that the ban is yet to be enforced by appropriate authorities. A visit to some schools in Lagos, approved by WAEC to conduct the just-concluded 2012 May/June SSCE, some level of examination malpractice was revealed, perpetrated by students and teachers.

“Despite the presence of WAEC officials, authorities of the school pretended not to have been doing anything wrong, until the WAEC officials left,” disclosed a candidate who does not want her name in print.

Another source who spoke to Quadlife narrated her experience during the Mathematics examination. “Students were asked to bring N500 each on the eve of the day we took our Maths exams. On D-day (precisely, April 26 ), students who paid were separated from those who didn’t.

“When two WAEC officials came in, they suspected foul play due to the haphazard sitting arrangement of candidates, but authorities of the school probably must have cowed them into believing that all was well, as they left the school without a pronounced or visible sanction.”

Meanwhile, even as the 2012 May/June SSCE(s) are over and sales of forms for the Nov/Dec SSCE proposed to kick-off in September have commenced, a visit around Lagos  have shown banners, posters and bill boards of tutorial and business centres with inscriptions like “Register 4 GCE 2012 Special Centre;” “Register for GCE NOW and make your papers in one sitting;” “Register for GCE, 7 credits assured.”

Efforts by stakeholders in the education sector to arrest this  trend have proved futile, even investigations have revealed that some school owners, including officials of the various examination bodies, aid and abet examination malpractice.

Following the negative effects of this trend on the educational standard of the country, the Minister of State for Education, Barrister Ezenwo Wike briefing the  Press during the pre-60th annual council meeting of WAEC in Lagos, made a recommendation for a 10-year ban on illegal examination centres preferred by the students who are desperate to make good grades in public examinations.

At the briefing, Wike argued that miracle centres have become a commonplace in the country because of the absence of adequate penalty against the operators and their centres. According to him, the current two-year ban on such centres does not carry enough weight.

He said: “When you ban a school for 10 years, three things are most likely to happen. Firstly, parents will begin to withdraw their children from such schools. The second is that the community will not want such schools to stay within the vicinity while the third is that the students themselves will no longer register with such schools. When all these happen, you have invariably sent such a school out of business.”

Even as the Minister assured that government will partner with examination bodies in the country to mitigate the incident of examination malpractice, the pertinent questions remain: when and how? Analyzing this trend, stakeholders who spoke with Quadlife had this to say.

Mark Okoh, Principal, Caro Favoured College, Awodi-ora, attributed the existence of these miracle centres to government’s lip-service to improving the standard of education in the country.

“If the government claims there are miracle centres, that means they are exposing their weaknesses in managing the education sector. I don’t subscribe to the idea that miracle centres just exist like that, rather, the problem is still at the doorstep of government, because they are still paying lip-service to the education sector.

Also speaking, the Principal, Kay’s College, Surulere, Thompson Ayivor blamed the existence of miracle centres on government, school owners, exam bodies, parents and teachers. His words: “On the part of government, they should ensure that they set up inspectorate teams that will go round schools, public and private on inspection tours.

This is own to the fact that when you visit some schools, especially public schools, the teachers are only busy selling goods in class, discussing about government and other irrelevant issues, instead of concentrating on their primary assignment of imparting sound morals and training their students