Apparently intent on sanitising the state?s educational sector and instilling the right values in its young population, Abia?s State governor, Alex Otti, recently announced his administration?s shutdown of places used for examination malpractices, code-named Miracle Centres, in the state. The governor, who argued that his administration was doing everything to provide a conducive learning environment for the state?s children, made this declaration while launching the Abia State educational innovative programme tagged AbiaFirst at the state capital, Umuahia. He said his administration had tackled the deterioration that characterised the state?s education sector during the past administrations.

?He said: I am glad that several steps have been taken in the last 20 months to address the malaise of exam malpractices in most parts of the state.? According to him, educational initiatives like improved teachers? welfare, recruitment of 5,000 teachers and rehabilitation of schools were geared towards producing a future generation of leaders for the State. on the ocassion, the Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Elder Goodluck Ubochi, said the ABIAFIRST initiative aimed at re-imagining the state?s education system with a focus on quality teaching, improving basic education, reforming secondary schools, integrating digital learning, and enhancing career education and skills development.

Against the backdrop of Nigeria?s age-long battle with the menace of examination malpractice, this is, no doubt, a welcome development. If anything, students need to know that there is no short cut to success in examinations; that it takes hard work and discipline, not a contrived miracle performed by destiny destroyers masquerading as ?helpers?, to suceed during examinations. Examination malpractice refers to fraudulent or illegal means of attaining success in an examination. Over the years, examining bodies had frowned on such practices as impersonation, collusion, the importation of unauthorised materials into the examination hall, irregular activities in or outside the examination hall, and assault on supervisors or invigilators. Sadly, these practices have remained persistent even in higher education, where such illegal practices as the storage of answers inside mobile phones, leakage of examination questions, giraffing and even dictation of answers to examination questions; the award of inflated marks to students by teachers, lecturers? solicitation of colleagues to award unmerited grades to their favourite student(s) and sexual partners, falsification of examination results and the insistence on sexual gratification as a precondition to passing examinations remain extant.

With respect to public examinations such as those organised by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), National Examination Council (NECO) and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), the so-called miracle centres are designated examination venues corrupted by certain unscrupulous individuals who cause candidates to pay special fees meant to guarantee phenomenal success in the examinations through cheating. The operators of such centres, namely the owners, members of the teaching staff and any other person co-opted into that axis of evil, are reported to often cause the candidates and their parents to be aware of the special ?package? that awaits them during the examination(s) in question, for which they pay handsomely. In such centres, conniving with corrupt examination supervisors and the smuggling of prepared answers into the examination halls are routine. Indeed, certain operators of special/miracle centres are known to even circulate posters announcing A-grade success for any candidate registered in their centres. It is products of such centres that tell post-UTME examiners that the novel Things Fall Apart was written by the late General Sani Abacha!

It is a no-brainer that secondary school students who want miraculous results are on a dangerous path. If you pass the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) or the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) through miracle centres, do you also survive the rigour of higher education through miracles? Certainly, it is official laxity, if not connivance, that allowed such centres to be created in the first place. It is hard to imagine a country that can make progress with its youths cheating their way through public examinations. How will such youths be able to compete with their peers in the future? Conversely, given the natural progression of evil, it would be quite easy for candidates who cheated their way through O-levels to be sucked into the vortex of examination malpractice at the tertiary level, and to graduate into grifters and professional pen robbers in public service. Where societal pressure to produce graduates coalesce with inadequate preparation by O-level candidates, weak supervision and examination misconduct, then the society as a whole must battle increased corruption, devaluation of certificates, reduced motivation to learn, weak professional quality and the dastardly consequences of unskilled workers in the economy, not to mention the erosion of ethical values.

At the risk of sounding repetitive, we say that students cheating during exams can graduate to politicians rigging elections tomorrow, with disastrous consequences for the country. They can become fraudsters and robbers, having learnt to cheat their way through life so early, aided by parents with a weak moral fibre. And where the larger society continues to worship money, preaching a destructive ?little work, big money? philosophy, the consequences are beyond grim.

Against this backdrop, we endorse the Abia State government?s closure of miracle centres. We hasten to add, however, that mere closure of the centres is not enough. Arresting and prosecuting the offenders is key. Otherwise, they will simply lie low for now and resume their dastardly activities at a later date. That is a grim prospect, and it is profoundly sad. (Nigerian Tribune Editorial)

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