Moments after he was declared President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, revealed that education will top on his agenda when he takes over in May. This is refreshing, considering the years of near-neglect that the education sector endured. It is instructive that the President-elect has alluded to (re)introducing a students’ loan scheme and promised to breathe fresh life into the comatose education sector. The conduct of credible public examinations is central to the impending revolution in the education sector.

The national desire for credible public examinations means National Examinations Council (NECO) must jettison the idea of relying on commercial printers to handle its sensitive and non-sensitive examination materials. In other words, the incoming Tinubu/Shettima administration should, as a matter of urgency, establish a printing press for the main purpose of handling the Council’s examination materials. Aside affording the Council the opportunity to check and plug leakages before they fester, a printing press for NECO gives the management direct control over sensitive examination materials, a situation that is absent in the present arrangement where sensitive materials are outsourced. All these translate into one huge boost for the war against examination malpractice.

So far, it must be conceded that there are on-going innovations at the Council to justify the appointment of Professor Dantani Ibrahim Wushishi as the Registrar/Chief Executive of the Nigeria’s national examination body. After a stormy take-off, there is every indication that the current management has steadied itself in its determination to reposition and transform the conduct of public examination and turn NECO into a world-class examination body.

Top on the Registrar’s to-do list, which he unveiled upon assuming headship of NECO is to banish examination malpractice and put perpetrators of the evil act and their patrons out of business. If this is not to come to nought, it is imperative that NECO establishes its own printing press, one idea which inside sources say is close to the heart of Professor Wushishi. Establishing a NECO printing press will complement ongoing regular upgrades by NECO management to protect NECO website from authorized access.

Still, there is more to be done by Professor Wushishi in his determination to shatter the myth of invincibility that surrounds examination malpractice. Flowing from this is a deliberate plan by management to motivate staff if NECO is to succeed in knocking fraudsters and examination cheats out of business. Even as steps are taken to improve staff welfare, it is instructive for Professor Wushishi and his team to realize that, like other human organisations, NECO has its fair share of venal officials who may go to any length to scuttle honest effort to reposition and transform NECO into a world-class examination body. The searchlight must constantly be focussed on exposing and sanctioning duplicitous officials.

Without any doubt, much was expected of Professor Wushishi considering the painstaking and thorough selection process that produced him. Besides his precedence as an educationist, researcher and field worker par excellence, the fact that he is treading familiar terrain are further proof that Professor Wushishi is primed to take NECO to the next level. It is instructive to note that, top on the mandate handed to him, which is also critical to how his tenure will be assessed, is how effective Professor Wushishi prosecutes the war on examination malpractice, conduct credible public examinations and transform NECO into a world-class examination body!

In a little over two decades of its existence, NECO has truly matured and lived up to its billing as a child of necessity. It has given hope to many average school leavers by offering them a second chance to get their acts right within one examination year. This has saved serious and hardworking students and their parents much headache. Today, the body conducts examinations that are globally hailed and acknowledged as credible; it is a challenge which the current management should strive to improve on.

Ultimately, the main challenge is for NECO to be a step or two ahead of fraudsters and examination cheats. Whatever internal mechanisms NECO put in place to curb examination malpractice over the few years have achieved modest successes because sensitive documents such as live examination questions are gradually getting out of the reach of examination cheats, fraudulent school proprietors and operators of so-called miracle centres. The establishment of a printing press for NECO will no doubt knock irritants off the stage and the searchlight will henceforth be on NECO staff. It will be a golden opportunity for NECO management to introspect.

From the look of things, printing and distribution of sensitive materials is the weakest link and at which point malpractices are perpetrated. With regards to distribution of sensitive materials, one of two things could be done; either NECO state offices are bypassed as storage or custodian points for vital examination materials or, if they must continue to play the role, patently incorruptible officers should be drafted to head the offices. In all instances, management must apply necessary sanctions in the event of infractions.

If truth be told, examination malpractice is symptomatic of the rot and moral bankruptcy in the country. Since many students rely on parents and so-called miracle centres to pass examinations, the tendency is for few school leavers to see any dignity in hard work. The result, sadly, has been rampant cases of collapsed buildings, death through medical negligence, drug trafficking and adulteration, armed robbery, wrong-headed agitation, kidnapping, insurgency, low quality political leadership and several unspeakable vices bedevilling the society.

The essence of any educational system is to inculcate the spirit of discipline in its recipients but, this is a tall order in a society where all manner of illegalities have been elevated to an art. Instructively, any genuine attempt at reviving education should begin with a deliberate effort to reposition and revolutionise NECO.

•Magaji <+234-803-697-9133; magaji778@gmail.com> is based in Abuja.

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