Charles Uwakwe is a professor of counselling/health psychology and education administrator. In this interview with FRED EZEH, he spoke on the effect of exam malpractice in the education system among other issues.

You just clocked one year in office, what has been your experience so far?

It has been a wonderful experience piloting the affairs of the National Examination Council (NECO), a body that is regarded as one of the most credible examination body in Nigeria. Being the NECO Chief Executive Officer is entirely different from the classroom where I came from. I see the job as a national assignment and not a political appointment. So my commitment is 100 percent as evident in my dealings. I do my work with passion and commitment. I was bequeathed with an excellent staff and bunch of intellectuals and professionals who are dedicated to their duty. I have also learnt a lot from their years of experience. They have also been supportive in running the organization and I am grateful for that. Nevertheless, there is room for improvement and that we would continue to do in order to give the best of services to our clients. In summary, it has been a very wonderful and eventful year. Not without challenges though, we have enjoyed support from the Ministers of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu and Anthony Anwukah, the entire staff and management of NECO and other stakeholders.

What are the specific challenges you encountered particularly in the just concluded June/July examinations?

I must confess that the performance surpassed my expectations. My uncompromising staff were deeply involved in the entire process and their presence were very conspicuous in all participating secondary schools. Undoubtedly, there were logistics and security challenges particularly in rural schools. However, experienced NECO officials were available in those areas to handle the issues. They are there in the communities, exam materials well secured. Not only that, they ensured that the materials were promptly supplied where they were needed. Remember that NECO has years of experience in the conduct of exams and we have continuously developed the capacity of our officials to surmount whatever challenge that might raise its head either before, during and after the exams. Being humans, there might still be little shortcomings which are not peculiar to NECO.

The Nigerian exam system is yet to conquer the challenges of malpractice. What could still be responsible?

Exam malpractice is indeed a very big challenge that keep taking different dimensions as the society evolves. But we have excellent monitoring mechanism that we use to keep it in check. Security agents are deeply involved in making sure that the conduct of the exams is devoid of compromise and cheating. Early report of the just concluded June/July exams indicated a significant improvement going by the feedbacks we have received. Prior to the exam, credible and uninterrupted communication channels were established between NECO headquarters and state offices. This was to enable us interact regularly and discuss issues that had to do with the exam. A task force team was  sent to collate daily report from the field. However, we have concluded the exam and have begun marking the scripts. But before then, we do script swap. By this, we exchange the answer scripts of a state with another. The essence was to reduce cheating and compromise from the people involved in the marking.

What is the effect of exam malpractice on the quality of our education and graduates?

It has a devastating effect on our entire education system. However, you might want to know that exam malpractice is being perpetuated by few individuals who, obviously are not committed to academic and moral excellence. But frankly speaking, majority of our children and teachers are committed to the academic excellence and never consider malpractice as an option. But because NECO was committed to excellence, we put in all our effort to ensure that the exam materials are well protected and all officers involved in the system are people with integrity. In each of our exam, we engage the services of external monitors, academics from universities and colleges of education who would be involved in the monitoring of the exams. These are people who have years of integrity and reputation. However, ending exam malpractices is a collective responsibility and not for NECO alone.

Could there be an end to exam malpractice with regular human interface?

There could not be total eradication of exam malpractices but the menace could be reduced to the barest minimum. In NECO, there is a strong quality assurance department that is consistently working hard to counter different new and sophisticated methods being used to cheat in exam. We have equally established a credible mechanism for determining whether candidates or officials are involved directly or aided exams malpractices. Once that is established, appropriate sanctions are given without hesitation. NECO has zero tolerance for exams malpractice and we spare no effort in punishing anyone or school found to be aiding cheating. Some schools have been slammed with two, three years suspension while others have been blacklisted.

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How do you think we could sanitise and restore the credibility of the exam system in Nigeria?

Sanitising and restoring the sanity of exam system depends on the collective support of all stakeholders especially the parents, teachers and school proprietors. It is regrettable that some influential people including teachers and parents have been fingered by our reports to be aiding and abating exam malpractices. Schools are not exonerated from this because we have caught some of them engaging in exam malpractice. The league of exam bodies comprising of West African Examination Council (WAEC), NECO, National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB) and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) are deeply involved in the cleansing of the exam system and tremendous progress is being recorded. It is very worrisome that some students have taken the culture from secondary school to university but some of them have been fished out and sanctioned by university management some of which include expulsion. NECO would continue to apply necessary punishments to serve as deterrent to others.

Are you considering the adoption of computer based exam as being championed by the JAMB?

Now, the option of computer based exam is yet to be included in our agenda for obvious reasons. First, the approach we use in conduct of our exam is quite different from what JAMB uses. Secondly, the JAMB exam is a one day event but ours lasts for almost a month. Another reason is that JAMB exam contains questions that have A,B,C answers but NECO questions have objectives and practicals which cannot be done the way JAMB exam is conducted. We might consider that going forward but we will maintain our pen and paper system for now. With the above reasons, it is clear that there are unique differences in both exams that would make it impossible for us to follow the footsteps of JAMB in migrating to CBT.

Have you begun the analysis of the report of the just concluded exam?

The process of collation is ongoing. Nevertheless, I receive daily update from the field officers who are engaged in monitoring from the state and zonal offices. I have regular interactions with them including teleconferencing. The essence was to deal with pressing issues that might affect the credibility of the outcome of the exercise. For example, some states were said to have recorded unwholesome exams malpractices. The case was brought to my attention, and I have quickly involved the law enforcement and senior experienced NECO officers who know what to do and the issues have been resolved. Our monitoring team were also up and running throughout the exam period. Nevertheless, reports from all stakeholders involved in the exam including the external officers are expected to reach the headquarters of NECO very soon.

What hope does NECO candidates have, following the “excellent” result released by WAEC recently?

Remember that NECO is a national examination body just as WAEC and NABTEB.  So, candidates have the exclusive right to choose any of the exams to sit. We are not in competition with any exam body but focused our energy on how to offer quality and credible services to our candidates who we are committed to satisfy. This includes the way we conduct, process, release the exam results. We have begun marking scripts and our results would soon be out. But I want to assure Nigerians that the qualities are excellent and credible, the standards are also very high and the results are very competitive everywhere. The fact that WAEC released results earlier than us does not, in any way, make ours inferior. It’s just about timing and very soon, ours would be released too. I congratulate WAEC on the prompt release of the result but don’t forget that not all the students made excellent result. So, they are also hopeful that NECO will be there for them. But our desire is not to be an alternative but to provide excellent, quality and credible exam system.

What is your general assessment of the Nigerian education system?

I don’t believe this general saying that the quality and standard of our education has dropped beyond expectation. There is no empirical data to justify that claim. The fact is that the Nigerian education system needs the collective effort of all stakeholders to build. These include the parents, guardians, students and the federal and state ministries of education as well as other stakeholders. The essence of the annual National Council on Education (NCE) summit was to provide a great platform where great minds in the Nigerian education system should identify and discuss issues that concern the quality of education in Nigeria. The Council is always advised to use contextually strategies to deal with the identified challenges. Because, we ought not to grumble over situations but to develop realistic strategies to deal with the identified challenges and that is what we are doing in the institution called NECO. We are grateful to the Ministers of education for their unflinching support and the result is there for all to see.