Posted by From ROSE EJEMBI, Makurdi on
The Federal Government has decried the increasing spate of examination malpractices in the country thus blaming all stakeholders for the malaise.
The Federal Government has decried the increasing spate of examination malpractices in the country thus blaming all stakeholders for the malaise. Speaking recently in an interview with newsmen in Makurdi, Benue State , Minister of State for Education, Dr. Jerry Agada bares his mind on the current reforms being introduced by the Federal Government in the educational sector. He also spoke on other pertinent educational issues.
Challenges so far
Well thank you, we've just assumed duty from 8th July to early August. There are challenges on the ground but the most prominent among the challenges are the reforms that were on ground before we came. We looked at the report comprehensively and we said fine, let us see what we can do. In the reforms, there were so many sides to it and we said we are not throwing it away because in the first place we want to believe that the immediate past administration also did a good job to embark on those reforms.
The only thing is that now that we have come as a new administration, let us look at it closely for the purpose of either continuing with some of them, and then refreshing others. That is what you press men term reforming the reforms. We are reforming the reforms for the purpose of making sure that whatever is done is in the best interest of the generality of Nigerians. We discovered that even though the past administration did a good job, some of the reforms were actually hurriedly done. Take for instance, the consolidation of tertiary institutions.
There are rules and regulations, ethics and norms setting up some of these institutions. At the time these reforms were done, some of these things were not taken into consideration. The consolidation of tertiary institutions, whatever they mean by that, tertiary institutions like polytechnics, colleges of education that are situated in a place where there are federal universities are supposed to merge with them so as to form one institution. Good idea! But if you look at it, some of these institutions we are talking about have their own ethics that establish them.
For you to be able to do the merger, you should look at the law for the purpose of reviewing some aspects or enhancing some other aspects so as to marry them together so that these things will come out more effectively. Let me give you another example, the merging of the Federal Scholarship Board with the Education Trust Fund (ETF). The ETF has its own ethics that established it. It has its area of jurisdiction; what it is supposed to do and what it is not supposed to do. The Scholarship Board, on the other hand, is a different body of its own.
Without looking at all these things, we are operating a democratic process and for you to be able to do that, necessary laws had to be put in place. Some of these bills passed through the National Assembly so that they have legal backing and so on and so forth. So, we said well, in an attempt to review these things, we have seen that the cardinal point in the Yar'Adua administration is the rule of law. In fact, he wants everything to be done according to the rules and regulations of what governs that thing.
He tells you that as your president and as a minister under his administration, if he tells you to go and do something and without looking back, without doing proper analysis, you go and do that thing because the president said you should go and do it. If that thing is not in accordance with the rule of law, you come back and he will tell you that he did not ask you to go and do that thing.
Examination malpractices in Nigerian education system: Who to blame and what do we do to stem it?
Well as regards who is to be blamed, I think it is everybody. I am telling you because a child who engages in malpractice, if you look at it closely, you will discover that the thing has a root even from that child's own home. I have heard of parents who go to buy fake papers because their children are going to take the final exam. If they buy it, it means they are aiding and abetting that malpractice. Secondly, you talk of moving to miracle centres.
Your child has been in school with you in town from JSS 1 up to SS2 and now he wants to go to SSS 3 in a village school to write the exam. Your child moves to a village school where they think that while exams are going on, they can be giving their supervisors palm wine in a place like my village where we have plenty palm wine. By the time the supervisors drink much palm wine, they don't even know what you call supervision, they just allow anybody to do whatever he or she likes.
At the end, the child will come with about seven or eight credits in the Senior School Certificate Exams. Yet the child will tell you, ‘he have come" instead of "he has come', because he cannot even make a simple sentence. You know if you are in Makurdi here for instance, taking that exam with the police, with the city life and everything, you will not engage in any malpractice but when you go to those villages where people cheat you, see the difference.
So, what I am saying in essence is that as a parent, you transport your child, allow him to go to a village after having spent about five years in the school with you in the town to go and write final exam in that village. Don't they have exam centres in the town? If you allow such movement, you are also aiding and abetting malpractice. Even the school itself that allows supervisors to be engaged with things like money, palm wine and so on and so forth, the school is also involved in examination malpractices because they think that by turning in that wonderful result, people will be praising the school, they are also aiding and abetting malpractice.
What are the solutions?
As people at the helm of affairs at the ministry, to stem it, we are taking many steps. We have seen that even nursery school children engage in exam malpractices at that level up to secondary and tertiary levels. So, our belief is that if the foundation is faulty, it will go through. Remember the adage that a house built on wrong foundation does not stand.
So, because of that the present administration in the Federal Ministry of Education is re-invigorating the Inspectorate Services. In fact, recently about the 8th of October to the end of October, we were away to China, Thailand and some other countries to look at their inspectorate services and see what we can learn from there.
I am not telling you that we went to import what they are doing there but these are countries that their own inspectorate system have emerged to become something like commission. Just as we have NUC (National Universities Commission) for instance, we have NCCE (National Commission for Colleges of Education), we have NTBE (National Board for Technical Education). We are also looking at it that if such an inspectorate arrangement can come to place to bridge the gap between the tertiary, secondary and the nursery primary, it will become effective that people will look at it closely, so that all forms of malpractice or whatever will be scrutinized and a more focused attention will be given in that area. We are thinking that, that is a way of curbing malpractices.
That is why in the reform that was done before we came you will discover that the Federal Inspectorate Services and the Federal Ministry of Education were merged with the UBE. One of the first steps we took was to bring it back. Of course, we did that not on our own authority but at least we sought permission from the presidency that we want to do a review of the reform.
Immediately what we did was to shift back to Inspectorate Services and to bring our intention to fruition. That was why we went to these countries after interacting with DFID, UNESCO, British Council and so on and so forth. We are putting our own arrangement with regards to Inspectorate Services in place. We may not call it Inspectorate Service.
We can call it Quality Assurance or whatever agency in which by the time we come out with it, all things about malpractice and so on should be a thing of the past because if malpractice still exists and you are talking about Quality Assurance, there will not be quality assurance there. So these are some of the steps we are taking to ensure sure that these things are eliminated. Of course, this is not to say that the general public should sit down and fold their hands and see malpractices and condone them until we come out with own policy on exam malpractices. No, we are saying that whatever anybody can do to make sure that the thing is stemmed, we still encourage them to do, but the Federal Ministry of Education is coming out with this promise which we think will go a long way in solving the problem.
Will your Ministry grant the request of the Benue State Government to hand over its polytechnic to the Federal Government?
The state government cannot decide and say we have handed over the state institution to the Federal Government. They can make a request to the Federal Government because it is their own. The Federal Government has policies regarding establishment of what we call Federal Government Colleges. You know since I became a minister, people say I should take one federal school to my village that the colleges there are private schools and that they are waiting for me to act fast. And I laughed because it is not as simple as that. If you look at the chart, the Federal Government calls for a reason to establish unity colleges in any part of the country.
As the name implies, unity colleges are to bring unity among Nigerians. You know in the olden days, from our village, Orokram, you can go to Federal Government College , Sokoto. Somebody from Warri will go to Federal School in Enugu and so on and so forth. So, the rule is that every state should have two Federal Government Colleges. One, mainly for girls and another one for both boys and girls. But if you look at our situation in Benue State, you will discover that we have three.
We have one at Otobi for boys and girls, we have one at Vandeikya for boys and girls and at Gboko for girls. Already, we have three because of the peculiarity of our own situation in Benue State. But I tell you that the states that have more than two are not up to five. The rest are two in conformity with the law. Then, in addition to these three that we have, we have Federal Technical College, which some other states haven't got till now, in most states of the federation.
The idea is that it should go round all. Then apart from that, go to tertiary institution if you look at the chart, you see that some states don't even have federal universities at the moment, like where my Honourable Minister, Aja Nwachukwu comes from, they don't have a federal university. In Benue State here, we have Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, then some others, colleges of education and polytechnics. So, you see that you will take many things into consideration not for the purpose of locating a junk in one state, then none at all in another state. If we do that, the much desired unity which we have always talked about, will not be there.
Now, if the state government like you said, have decided to appeal to the Federal Government, the appeal will be considered in its own merits and certain criteria will be used. And if at the end it comes to pass that the Federal Government is convinced to assign a federal polytechnic to Benue State, to me, there is nothing wrong with that appeal. In fact, the Federal Government should be happy that the infrastructure are on ground. It is a question of saying, let us apply our policy in this place. On the other hand, if they look at it closely and it is not possible, there is nothing wrong with saying, well this appeal is being considered for now because of some subsistence factors.
To me, that appeal is in the right direction. Finally, I want you to take note that in as much as I have said that one, don't think there is a federal polytechnic in Benue State. When we were together with Kogi, there was Federal Polytechnic, Idah, but when Kogi State was created, it moved. So, as I said, there are so many things to take into consideration before citing an institution. And if after looking at these conditions and it becomes favourable to Benue State, I see no reason the Federal Government will not react positively.