Lagos govt to enforce 3 years jail term for exam malpractice offenders
By The Lagos State government, on Tuesday, expressed its readiness to start enforcing the Examination Malpractice Act as enstrined in the 1999 Federal Constitution, stipulating a three years’ jail term or fine of N100, 000 or both for anyone caught and found guilty of compromising exam ethics in the country.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Lagos State, Mrs Adebunmi Adekanye, said this in her remark at the examination ethics workshop organised by the ministry for students, teachers, parents and other education stakeholders in the state at Maryland, Ikeja.
The annual workshop with the theme “Effects and solutions to exam malpractice in the society,” has resource persons from the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), National Examination Council (NECO) and the Lagos State Examination Board, among others in attendance.
Adekanye, who openly expressed joy over one of the public secondary schools in the state, Meiran Community High School, producing the candidate with the highest mark in the last Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination being conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board(JAMB), re-emphasized that the state government would not hesitate to ensure that the laws guiding the conduct of public exams in the country takes it full course.
Exam ethics, according to her, is the integrity and best practices in education which help students to excel in exams based on ethics complaint principles, while exam malpractice is simply academic fraud or dishonesty.
“So, while I appeal to your conscience for a better education in the future, i will also warn everyone-be it student, teacher, school administrator or parent-of the consequences of involvement in unwholesome activities concerning exams,” she stressed.
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She said though, exam malpractice had reduced significantly, especially in the public schools in the state, the government is not still comfortable as it aim is the total elimination of exam malpractice in the state.
Speaking separately, a trio of Deputy Registrar from WAEC, Mr Idowu Ojo, and Mr Agboola Kolapo from NECO and the Registrar, Lagos Exam Board, Dr. Olufemi Hassan, said their organisations were not taken the issue of exam malpractice lightly with anyone or institution.
They said though, they came up with new mechanisms everytime to prevent malpractice in their exams, they were not satisfied with the results from such efforts.
While they encouraged students and teachers to be more serious with their respective duties of learning and teaching, they also urged parents and government not to fail in their responsibilities of providing necessary things that will aid the development of education and the economy at large.
They said the exam malpractice would not do anyone nor country any good but lots of harm.
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