Examination malpractice is becoming worse as the days go by especially and in fact, only in Nigeria. Students no longer read ahead for their exams. What they do, is to "gather " money for the exams. The rate of exam malpractice has risen to the extent that even parents are involved in this shameful act. Let me tell you my story.
I sat for my WAEC exams in 2017. I actually started preparing for my exams in ss2 ,because I knew that my parents will never ever pay for Expo, and so I had to respect myself and do my best. While the exam date was approaching, I discovered that most boys in my class were not coming to school frequently as they were . As the class monitor, I was always marking them absent in the school register. So one day I decided to ask them why they don't come to school as often, and they told me that they had to gather money for Expo . They said that they cannot kill themselves reading everyday when they can just pay to pass. I was half surprised because they were not doing well in class Afterall. I tried to make them drop the idea but it was a fruitless effort.
My principal later appointed a particular teacher to be the school's exam coordinator. This man Ehh, is the state's top run's man. He runs for waec, jamb, neco, post utme, in fact, he is a top runner( so he made us believe). As the exams were approaching, he started collecting money for Expo, and he collected based on the importance of the subject. Example
Maths -5000
English -5000
Chemistry -5000
Physics -5000
Biology 4000
Commerce -3000
Tie and die -1500,and so on.
Students were paying and since I couldn't pay, I was reading. I became as thin as a broom stick. The teacher was even registering people who will not even write the exams. Those ones payed about 60000 . They couldn't write because they were working. I got to know all about this because this teacher will tell us to our faces to bring our loved ones who are willing to pay.
When the exams came, the first subject we wrote was maths. My people, come and see runs. I haven't seen any like it in my entire life. Those who payed were sitting at the back while we were sitting at the front. Sometimes the invigilator will taunt us and laugh at us because we refused to pay. What surprised me more was the amount the invigilator collected. My people, he requested for 350000. My class was large and in fact, another school was joining us, so we were up to 300. Our "Expo teacher " payed the money and added a slaughtered fowl which he asked me to buy (as the prefect of the class). I didn't know that I was buying fowl for an Expo invigilator ohh. He just said that I should buy fowl and I bought.
Through out the days we wrote the exams, the invigilators were payed. The teacher was writing personally for those who couldn't come to the school to write. He would take answer booklets, ask other teachers for the answers to the ones he doesn't know (all teachers were working together), write for them and submit. I wasn't scared because I was confident in what I wrote and in fact, the exams were simple for me . I only had difficulty in physics.
My people when the results were out, I passed ohh but guess who was the best student. The best student of my school 2017/1018 session was a pump attendant at one filling station in sapele who didn't even know the address of my school. He was one of those students my teacher was writing for. Chai. Ahh this life no balance.
When will malpractice stop in Nigeria? When will our youths begin to see that malpractice damages the society. These days, there are half baked graduated everywhere. Why? Why can't they just put enough hard work if they want to pass exams? Why?
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