The main hall of the Lagos Excellence Hotel, Ogba, Ikeja, Lagos State, looked solemn on Tuesday. Yet, there was no religious event going on there. Even the presence of a select number of pupils from more than 25 public and private schools in the hall did not alter the sombre situation.

In the hall also were the Head of National Office of WAEC, Mr. Charles Eguridu; the Council’s Director of Finance, Mrs. Bola Ojeleye; as well as many other educationists and stakeholders.

That these pupils and stakeholders all carried on as if something appalling befell them that morning was not surprising. More than a physical harm, they had a psychological burden occupying their inner recesses. Put simply, the scourge of examination malpractice was the yoke that weighed them down terribly.Having just finished watching a video clip where parents, teachers and pupils colluded to perpetrate examination malpractice, they had no option but to remain calm. The event that attracted this calm audience was the road show/sensitisation exercise on examination malpractice organised by WAEC. And by the time the HNO reeled off the statistics of the level of malpractice in the country in the last four years, the hall became quieter.

According to Eguridu, the vice is not only giving the council concern, it is also undermining the nation’s educational system and policies.

He added, “It casts a slur on the integrity of the certificates, such that even those honestly obtained do not escape the blot of doubt and suspicion. Mediocre persons who cheat and pass go ahead to secure places in the universities and other tertiary institutions. Even with degrees in their hands, mediocre persons remain mediocre persons.

“The country is obliged to deploy them to key areas in the economy. Given this scenario, there will be no way the nation will rise beyond the level of competence of the mediocre persons in vital places.”

Beyond identifying the consequences of the vice, the HNO painted a terrible picture of the incidence of examination malpractice in the country in the last four years.

He noted that from the 11.47 per cent of candidates that engaged in malpractice in the November/December 2011 WASSCE, the figure increased to 14.95 per cent in 2014. He explained further that of the 396,820 candidates that enrolled for the November/December exams in 2012, 58,001 candidates, representing 14.62 per cent, cheated in the examination.

For the same examination in 2013, Eguridu said that of the 297,092 candidates, 48,742 candidates, representing 16.41 per cent, were involved in cheating.

Apart from the private candidates, the WAEC boss noted, the council’s statistics showed that pupils in conventional secondary schools were also neck deep in examination malpractice.

He revealed that of the about 1.5 million candidates that sat for the May/June WASSCE in 2011, 70, 342 candidates, representing 4.65 per cent, engaged in cheating. By the 2012 May/June WASSCE, according to him, the number of cheats had risen to 7.15 per cent.

Similarly, while 129, 434 candidates, representing 7.75 per cent of the about 1.6 million candidates cheated in May/June 2013, he said that the number of cheats increased to 163,703 candidates in 2014.

Eguridu, who said the council started conducting public examinations in 1954, noted that it was not resting on its oars when it comes to checking malpractices in its examinations. He identified the embossment of certificates, imposition of severe punishment on culprits, mounting of public enlightenment campaigns, provision of guidance and counselling at all levels of education and the adoption of adequate teaching strategies as some of the methods it uses to curb examination malpractice.

However, the HNO did not stop at that. He recommended that Nigerians should re-engineer their social and moral values if they want the nation’s educational system to regain its moral foundation.

He added, “The present system of education is geared towards passing examinations rather than acquiring knowledge. All canons of health, hygiene and decorum are ignored in a bid to pass examinations. The continuous assessment system should be perfected such that the individual energies and talents most suited to national aspirations and development can be recognised, channelled and assessed outside the examination hall.

“Finally, the focus of the educational system should be sharpened so that we can have a clearer psychological perception of the individual, his needs and abilities in relation to his environment. Teachers who are the main implementing agents in our educational system should be recognised, encouraged and adequately remunerated.”

Speaking also, a retired principal, Mr. Akintola Balogun, urged parents to support the council in curbing the vice in the country. According to him, apart from paying tuition, parents should be actively involved in monitoring the activities of their children.

The educationist, who criticised teachers who aid examination fraud, urged them to endeavour to be role models to their pupils.

Meanwhile, the council, on Thursday, warned candidates and schools not to indulge in organised malpractice, saying that it had inaugurated tougher sanctions to check their activities.

The council, which said it had “introduced some technologies in the conduct of examinations,” noted that “Nigeria records the largest number of examination irregularities” among its five member countries. The other countries are The Gambia, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Eguridu issued the threat during a road show in Abuja.

He said, “We have regulations that govern the conduct of our examinations. When we discover candidates who are involved in examination malpractice, we have the power to withhold their results and carry out investigation. When we investigate and confirm that they were involved in any form of malpractice, the entire results could be cancelled and the centre can be derecognised.

“We have introduced some technologies in the conduct of our examination; we have introduced a technology that verifies candidates for the exam. At the point of registration now, we can capture candidates’ fingerprints and facial features and upload the same to our database. On the day of the exam, we can upload these data into a hand-held device at the centres and use them to identify the candidates before they write the examination.”

On examination irregularities, he said, “Nigeria is the biggest office among the five member countries. We have the largest number of candidates in terms of population; apparently with that population, we record the largest number of examination irregularities in terms of examination conducted by WAEC across the member countries.”

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Mr. MacJohn Nwaobiala, decried the increasing rate of examination malpractice in the country.

“In recent years, we have seen the multifarious manifestations of exam malpractices, from cheating in examination to contracting mercenaries to write exams, among others,” he stated.

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