I served in Boki, Cross River State and I can attest to the high level of examination malpractice there. However, I did have some really bright students; students who amazed me with their academic prowess and engaged me in intellectual discourses. However, as much as I despise cheating, NLers will agree with me that most of these guys are victims of the environment they grew up in. Some don't even know it's wrong to pay "admin fee". And those who know join them cos' they can't beat them

May God help our generation!

modele2: Then they graduate with nothing in their brains and have the effrontery to envy people with good jobs or businesses. Still expecting the manna at every stage of their lives. I blame families, i blame mothers,. A family without values is a curse to a nation. This thread caused me intense heartache like someone died.. A loved one... My country

i feel your pain .. tragic really

Wow,,, thanks for this expose
we have a long way in this our country

Mazi_Omenuko:

Now I have to comment. . .

Someone said this was a pyramid and I couldn't agree more. Inasmuch as this story looks fictious, its real and a clear example of what is happening in our secondary schools. Waec cannot deny knowledge of such. Its an open secret, and it gets worse.

Students travel far and wide to write exams, so the principal is left in a dilemma of either approving such, or risk loosing his students to other willing centers.

And for those marking the scripts, trust me, waec does not encourage detection of malpractice while marking scripts. When you mark these scripts and observe that students are writing the same thiing, you are expected to fill some forms and present to your coordinator. After a rigorous process, most of which involving extra stress from your own part, you are paid one naira (yea, one naira per group of suspected malpractice papers). And by the next year, you will automatically be dropped from marking waec papers, reason is unknown, but its not unconnected to the fact that you reported a supposedly malpractice. Again, if you notify them of a possible malpractice, you will be invited to a waec panel to tell them how it is a malpractice center. The panel might hold at illorin or makurdi. Worse still, they will grill you like you are trying to frame a bunch of innocent students, since the original center supervisor did not write anything negative against the center during the main exam.

So what we that mark the question papers does is to grade them like that, just mark and pass. Its even easier for the marker because you end up allocating almost the same grade to the students, since they wrote the same thing; by so doing, you can mark more packs and get more money

May God help us

eagle,eye:

if you don't mind me asking what year were your mum in that school?
The reason I asked is because things have gotten to a stage that your mum could easily lose her life if she interfered unnecessarily today.
I am in the system and my heart bleeds seeing what the education system is doing to our young ones (especially those in public and semi-private schools).
Even my seniors in the office, have given up hope of things ever changing in the Educational sector at least in our generation.
These days if you try to think out of the box when it comes to exam malpractice, you could easily lose your life.
Shame.

Ashmarkexclusive..com

On and on, day after day, one paper after the other the malpractice went on unchallenged and unabated. It had become a long standing culture everyone was satisfied with.
As I taught SS1 and SS2 students each day, the effect of the malpractice was telling on them. They hardly concentrated, knowing that when it's time for SSCE, answers would be readily made available on the board. It was frustrating.
I thought about the way out and felt if promotion exams at each level would be taken serious, and only students deserving promotion were promoted to the next class, the students would sit up and study hard. But then it's more of a catch-22 situation. Education wasn't free, the students would stop coming to school if they failed, but the schools needed their money hence they kept promoting them so that they would keep coming.

There's a need for drastic change. There is a need to move away from the culture of malpractice and turn to diligence. There's little a corps member like me could do. But I must try, and hope it brings out a positive change. Hope, they say, maketh not ashamed.

In a bid to reverse the trend, I spoke to SS1 and SS2 students. I made them realise the need to be diligent with their studies. They were sober and showed willingness to change.
Knowing that they'd had a poor academic foundation, I organized extra classes for them; teaching Mathematics and Physics, starting from the basics. But these were only two subjects out of many! Well, the believe was that if they could excel in those subjects, they might be convinced that they could do well in other subjects as well.
The early signs were promising.
Perhaps the culture of exam malpractice would stop at Ekirom one day, and who knows, maybe Ikom local government as a whole. Perhaps!
--------------------------------
THE END

@Bankole,
Your Experience was Quite riverting.I could not stop reading. I am also very proud of you letting your faith drive your decisions and at your age, the way you write is really very matured. God bless you real Good! As I said in an Earlier post, I come from that State and Particularly from the Northern part(Ogoja)as well and I am really very dissapointed at how the standards have fallen in that region as well as around the country. I saw a post from someone talking about reporting the school and principal to Liyel Imoke Blablabla...and i thought, wait a minute, that was nothing other than a political concern or at best a lame attempt at defending the Governor where there are real issues being exposed here.

Again I add that traditionally, the cross river people are a very warm people, peaceful and treat visitors/strangers with dignity. Some of us may be naive but we are not all as corrupt or even canibalistic as its being suggeted around this forum. Repeat,The stories of "Man-eating" in Ugep is an age long myth that people around there like to tease them with...if not how come several corpers have not been munched all these years?...lol. I do not make light of your stories and will use every opportunity advise young people to work hard and stay away from Examination malpractices. You are also possibly being prepared by God to be an ambassador or Partner some NGO or pressure group to work against this practice of coercing or inducting young ones into a corruption club ...even at that age!

Finally from me, I think this is a good write-up, good flow,easy to follow, and i think you should not stop writing stories on real issues. Overall, good job!

Beretta92: Reminds me about when i wrote waec at a school close to isashi in lagos.They gave us faulty apparatus for d physics practicals n mislabelled samples for the chemistry practicals.They later brought photocopied answers which they distributed in d hall.i refused to cooperate n d Vice Principal(a Lord's chosen fanatic) threatened me with failure.i just had to improvise n create values for myself.i made all my papers to his amazement.

i know there,i usually stay at isashi with my Aunt every weekends when am free.

Hello all its like that almost every where in cross river, served around yala, a village called wanokom,waec there is class work, you solve and write on the board for candidates to copy. It was too bad during my service year

imoke go show for camp Abi o ti wa ni. They shdnt be wasting corpers time by thinking lykel will come down to obubra camp. During mine time, they started d parade around 2pm after we don stay in stay in d sun since morning

There is nothing new in this novel. It happens all over the country. And what should dominate discussions like this is THE SOLUTION not celebrating the failed system.

olu4life: @OP,kudos to you. Thought i was the only corper observing and not partaking of this nonsense. At my former ppa,it was worse. They wanted to get me involved. Didnt even show up on the day my subject was written. Thank God have left the forsaken school which should have been shut down. Despite all the discouagement i got frm most nairalanders on my issue, my voice was heard and the school has been blacklisted by NYSC. We need more of this kinda youths,not the corrupt ones that can take their stand and exercise their rights. Kappish

We need to fight this menace all together.

Kairoseki77: We know this happens. The real question is, "How do we change the system so that it stops?"

Who benefits currently? Parents, Students, Teachers, Gov't Officials
Who is harmed? The society at large is robbed of competent, and well educated people. Let's not even mention how scary doctors without a real education are.

Solution #1: Make the test harder to cheat on.
* Make each test slightly unique. For example, create 100 different editions and randomly distribute them so that every school gets dozens of different version of the same test.
* Require schools to submit video of students taking the exams. Video must show the current newspaper, the chalkboard, the teacher, and every student must be visible.

Solution #2: Pay students N100,000 if they can provide proof that someone cheated.
* If 50 people are all sitting in a room trying to cheat, isn't ONE of them going to want the money more than the good grade? That should scare everyone into not cheating.

Solution #3: Forcibly close schools if malpractice is proven.
* As soon as a school is found guilty of malpractice, everyone must be fired and replaced. The principal must get jail time.

Solution #4: Create anger among the populace.
* Distribute flyers showing the consequences of malpractice. For example, show pictures of mother's dying after childbirth and link the death to badly educated doctors and nurses.

Got any more solutions

Let's create a list of solutions to this problem, and submit it to the Governors. No sense in just sitting around and complaining about it.

Some of the ways out...

As i learn from all your stories, i just couldn't help but laugh. I am still a serving corps member and i have to say the story is just the same here in ondo state. It is amazing how corruption is today the value that is celebrated. As yet, i have not gained the energy to share my personal experiences with a private school in akure north lga, but may be some day, i will. May God help Nigeria.

Chief, u don't quote the whole page nah.. Abeg have mercy for dose of use using fone.. Pls

roselynbas:

Oga, please, can you continue?!

Pathetic.....even most readers cannot construct a single line of undiluted English and u all claim to have written waec on ya own? i wonder how those that cheated wud write then .

Remembered my second sch days wen our principal would tell the briliant student's 2 teach there frnds.I objected as the sch chapel prefect which I was den was labelled bad by my teachers then.tank God I'm laughin now passed my ssce with 7b's and 2c's.as an art student

ohuegbeair: Pathetic.....even most readers cannot construct a single line of undiluted English and u all claim to have written waec on ya own? i wonder how those that cheated wud write then .

You've not written any better yourself.

As for the dude/dudette who said 95% of the people here cheated, well, I can boast that I'm among the 5% who did not.

I started WAEC 18th April of that year, and throughout until May 21st,I was fasting until 6pm. I wouldn't cheat in that state of mind, but it didn't stop my Physics result from being withheld, and I failed Biology.


I wrote SSCE a second time, ON MY OWN!(No fasting this time though; I put all that energy into reading). I had 2As, 1B and 5Cs.

Its people like you I detested in my college days, frustrating people for answers in the exam hall like its your birthright when you should be learning a trade.

And yes, I replied you because you're aiding and abetting a major societal ill, and you're being condescending while at it.

@ op, what i appreciate most abt ur story is ur good use of d english language. I will say 'la parfait' cos some engineers can't write/speak correctly

@OP, I experienced the same thing at Bendi Technical Obanliku, Cross River State. At first I decided not to involve myself but the pressure was much.
To be frank, the money I made from their neco, nabtec and mock was what sustained me for the 3 months that my alawi was not paid.

[quote author=biolabee]Wow,,, thanks for this expose
we have a long way in this our country
Mazi_Omenuko:

Now I have to comment. . .

Someone said this was a pyramid and I couldn't agree more. Inasmuch as this story looks fictious, its real and a clear example of what is happening in our secondary schools. Waec cannot deny knowledge of such. Its an open secret, and it gets worse.

Students travel far and wide to write exams, so the principal is left in a dilemma of either approving such, or risk loosing his students to other willing centers.

And for those marking the scripts, trust me, waec does not encourage detection of malpractice while marking scripts. When you mark these scripts and observe that students are writing the same thiing, you are expected to fill some forms and present to your coordinator. After a rigorous process, most of which involving extra stress from your own part, you are paid one naira (yea, one naira per group of suspected malpractice papers). And by the next year, you will automatically be dropped from marking waec papers, reason is unknown, but its not unconnected to the fact that you reported a supposedly malpractice. Again, if you notify them of a possible malpractice, you will be invited to a waec panel to tell them how it is a malpractice center. The panel might hold at illorin or makurdi. Worse still, they will grill you like you are trying to frame a bunch of innocent students, since the original center supervisor did not write anything negative against the center during the main exam.

So what we that mark the question papers does is to grade them like that, just mark and pass. Its even easier for the marker because you end up allocating almost the same grade to the students, since they wrote the same thing; by so doing, you can mark more packs and get more money cool




@Mazi-Omenuko....can you please say which waec marking zone you operate from. On reading your post i was aghast and went to find out. I met and asked several WAEC markers,I can trust them completely. and the person laughed and said your story was not true. That they are encouraged and even paid extra to blow the whistle on exam malpractices. The only snag is that some of them would then have pity or look at the scripts and rationalize that the person would fail anyway and not even bother to blow the whistle.

Interesting

Where do we go from here Nigeria?

Every bit of the stories on exam malpractice u have read here is absolutely true. Bad thing is that it's an accepted culture there and u will be lynched if u as much as oppose it. I personally have no respect for 98.5% results from that region.

bankoleben:


Updates coming later in the day.

okay