A Professor of Educational Foundation, Ngozi Osarenren has offered the West African Examination Council (WAEC)and other public examination bodies in Nigeria a tip on conduct of credible examinations.
Experts have said that the conduct of public examinations in Nigeria is always characterised by examination malpractice, but Osarenren insisted that the examination bodies should consider as utmost priority the appointment of people they could vouch for as supervisors and invigilators to get the best outcome from the exercise.
Osarenren who was a former Commissioner for Education in Edo State, spoke in Abuja, while delivering the 27th Annual West African Examination Council (WAEC) Endowment Fund Lecture entitled, ‘Assessing the Assessors: Looking Back and Looking Forward.’
She noted that a lot of parents were desperate for their children to achieve success “at all costs” coupled with ill-preparation by candidates, and are prepared to circumvent the processes by compromising the assessors.
She accordingly, called for adequate remuneration of the supervisors and invigilators, stressing that if the invigilators compromised the integrity of the examination, it would adversely affect the outcome of the examination, where people are awarded certificates that they do not merit.
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She said in selecting people to serve as supervisors during each examination, “we must focus on the integrity of the supervisors. “Supervisors must be able to live above board in terms of credibility and integrity.”
Osarenren, of the University of Lagos added that, “we must ensure that they are not compromised in the face of juicy offers by principals and school administrators. Once they compromise, it becomes a problem. Their integrity must be top notch.
“We must refrain from selecting and appointing people we cannot vouch for their integrity.
“Poor and very low pay, however, has proven to be one of the reasons why some examiners, script markers and supervisors would want to compromise the integrity of examinations,” Osarenren said.
While listing factors that are responsible for high rate of examination malpractices during public examination, she said that most often, teachers were unable to cover the syllabus and as such would want to cover their inadequacies by helping candidates during examinations.
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