JAMB: Mass failure, evidence of exams insulation from cheating — Education Minister

… says ‘we are determined to break the exam malpractice ecosystem’

Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, has said that the mass failure in the Joint Examination Matriculation Board (JAMB), is evidence of the level of success in the checks against examination malpractices.

He said a lot of dedicated students are disincentivised by those who carry out various malpractices to pass their examination, undermining the place of genuine study to acquire knowledge.

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Fielding questions from Channels Television crew in its morning show, he said, “It is a reflection of exams being done the proper way.

“JAMB conducts its exam using computer-based testing. They have put so much security in place that fraud or cheating has been completely eliminated. Now, we don’t have the same in our other exams, like WAEC and NECO.

“From November of this year, WAEC and NECO will migrate their exams to computer-based testing. We have to use technology to fight this fraud. Governmental centres called numerical centres are not acceptable.

“But what you are seeing now, people cheat through the secondary school exam system, WAEC and NECO, and then they go to do JAMB, where they cannot cheat. And that’s the reflection of what we are seeing today. It’s bad.

“So the ones that are good, you are going to make them bad. And that is what we have to stop completely. Zero tolerance to exam practices in our country.”

He said as part of measures to insulate other qualifying and transitional examinations in the country,y technology would be fully adopted

He said by the year 2027, all exams will be fully Computer-Based Test (CBT), including WAEC, NECO, EMBRAS, and NBTEB.

Alausa said Nigerian children have the DNA to succeed; however, the environment they find themselves in has been responsible for their leaning towards shortcuts that have constituted challenges to studying.

“And the more important thing about cheating is that you disincentivise the hardworking students. If I were a student now, I am waiting for an exam for WAEC or NECO, and I realise that some of my other colleagues have already asked the question. You think I will read? No, I will join them!”

He said the ministry is determined to break the cycle of the cheating ecosystem, which constitutes parents, students and invigilators.

The Minister said, “I taught in school from primary to secondary school. What is a basic thing there is the rampant cheating that goes on in the high school exam system.

“I do not mind washing our own dirty linen outside, because that’s how we have to improve our system.

“JAMB is a clean exam now, almost 100% thought-free. The pervasive cheating in NECO and WAEC is what is causing this mess that we are in. When you allow these questions to leak, there is a complete lack of motivation for even the students that want to do the right thing.

“And we have a lot of our young citizens, they are very energetic, they are very productive, but it is in their DNA to do well. But it’s the environment they find themselves and that’s what we are determined to stop.

“And we have made good progress in stopping this. And we are going to be very forceful about this because we have a youth population that we are training to be useful, to deliver to the country and to the world at large. We can not afford for this pervasiveness to continue in our education system. That is why we are attacking this frontally.”

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