By Idris Mohammed
KATSINA — The Provost of the Federal College of Education, Katsina, Dr. Magaji Aliyu Dansarai, has described examination malpractices as a deadly virus in the Nigerian educational system, saying that the perpetrators must be punished with death.

Dansarai who spoke in an interview with Vanguard in his office in Katsina said promoters of examination fraud were “maggots to Nigerian educational system and worse than armed robbers.”

According to him, the malaise “is a killer disease that does not only kill the victims but demoralises and wreck their future,” noting that his own college is not an exception, as it has its own fair share.

Dansarai said: “There are many schools that encourage exam malpractices. Their students that came here with grade A’s failed woefully in their first examination. Examination malpractice is very dangerous and is the worst enemy of educational system.

“Because, it discourages students from working hard, it encourages immorality and corruption so that at the end of the day, students come out with a result that is not their own, thus killing their moral totally.

“The parents that pay for others to assist their wards, the teachers that write examinations for student are of course worse than armed robbers. Armed robbers kill with just a single bullet but exam fraudsters kill students gradually in traumatic pains that last for years.”

Dansarai said.
He however, blamed the government’s poor funding of education in the areas of laboratory facilities, providing instructional materials, library books and training of adequate teachers with proper remunerations, adding that the consequences to the educational system were devastating.

The Provost further stressed that examination malpractice was a threat to the successful implementation of Education for All (EFA) programme which requires that, every child of school age must be enrolled in schools.

He described attempts to eradicate examination practice as daunting saying, “the task is Herculean, the demands are high, the sector is collapsing, partly due to corruption that takes substantial part of government budget away and consequently, leads to poor funding.”

The provost then called for the establishment of more colleges of education to produce the required number of teachers in primary and secondary schools, many of which can only boast of two to three qualified teachers now.