Niger Delta queens declare war on exams malpractice

Niger Delta Royal Queens and the National Association of Women in Colleges of Education (NAWCOE) have declared war against examination malpractice in primary and secondary schools alongside tertiary institutions, saying that the move is aimed at addressing the falling standard of education in the Niger Delta Region.

The declaration was made when members of NAWCOE visited the President of the Niger Delta Royal Queens and wife of the Amayanabo of Twon Brass, Her Majesty, Josephine Diete-Spiff, at the traditional rulers council secretariat, Ovom in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.

According to Diete-Spiff, lack of proper parental upbringing, cultism and corruption are some of the major factors militating against quality education, adding that the Queens, in their various domains, have agreed take the campaign to their respective community schools through advocacy and enlightenment programmes.

She said: “In each of our domains we have community schools. So, we are going to talk to the teachers,  headmasters or headmistresses or the principals about the need to combat examination malpractices.

“I think we should use that as a platform. Afterwards we will have another meeting to agree that everyone of us must do something in our domains to reform our education system in order to help children do the right thing and make good decisions.

“If they start well and parents pay attention to their children, they will grow up well to be good leaders tomorrow. We are not only going to do that, we are going to introduce programmes like talent hunt, so as to encourage literacy in schools to enable children to know how to read and write properly from the beginning and how to speak as well.

Police uncover 360 chained children at religious centre in Daura

“These children grow up and somehow lose how to use tenses properly because they are not properly brought up. We, the queens are going to use that as our 2020 vision; getting the children to be better trained because when they are better trained from infantry, they will grow up to be better leaders of our nation.”

The National President of NAWCOE and a staff of the Federal College of Education, Pankshin in Plateau State, Dr. Zipporah Duguryil, said: “The truth is that most parents are absentee parents. What we will do  in our various communities is to invite parents to come around so we can tell them that there is need for proper parenting.

“We shall commission all our local chapters to organise seminars and workshops for parents and be told that some of the problems that we have is because they are absentee parents, it is because they are irresponsible parents.

“Irresponsible in the sense that what parents seem to be looking for is bread on the table while forgetting the fact that beyond the bread, the child needs character and that you can’t buy it in the market. You instill character in a person.”

Also speaking, the Provost, Federal College of Education (Technical) Umunze, Anambra State, Dr. Tessy Okoli, said examination malpractice is a cankerworm in the education sector, noting that there was need for attitudinal change  from the family to the larger society.

“When you train a child, especially a girl child, you train a nation. This can be done  by ensuring that  they do what they need to do in  school, during assignments, making them to read, in stilling the reading culture because once a child is able to read, when examinations come he or she won’t be afraid.

“But the problem is that they are not ready to read. Most of them want to.  It is, however unfortunate that some parents help their children to cheat. So the whole thing started from us, the elders even the larger society.” she said.