Posted by By Udede Jim on
For what has been explained as high tolerance for examination malpractices and the stubborn resistance to efforts by constituted authorities to check the malaise, Oyigbo Local Government Area (OYILGA) has been listed as a disaster zone.
For what has been explained as high tolerance for examination malpractices and the stubborn resistance to efforts by constituted authorities to check the malaise, Oyigbo Local Government Area (OYILGA) has been listed as a disaster zone.
Venerable (Prof.) Thompson Okujagu, Rivers State Commissioner for Education gave the clarification on Monday, 13th June, 2005 while briefing a team of public examination monitors, constituted for the onerous task of wiping out the evil of examination malpractices in institutions of higher learning in the state.
While explaining to the selected monitors the demanding but important nature of the task on hand, the Education Commissioner noted that there now exist numerous types of examination and educational malpractices in the system such as the ones that caused him to order mass transfer of teachers at Government Girls' Secondary School (GGSS), Harbour Road, Port Harcourt recently.
Some of them, he said, are over-registration and inclusion of non-indigenes which bloat the expenditure of the state while the principals of the affected schools run personal rackets by imposing outrageous fees on those who meet them for the registration. The commissioner also disclosed how he had been receiving threat calls from Oyigbo LGA because of his position on sharp practices in educational system.
Monitors were, therefore, charged to watch out for deep-rooted and sophisticated cheating formats in the on-going Teachers' Grade II, NABTEB and NECO throughout the state. He went on to warn those saddled with these duties against any form of compromise while doing the job, noting that the state Governor takes the assignment very seriously and had so mandated him (Okujagu) to provide, at least marginally, for the programme.
On another serious note, Prof. Okujagu advised all heads and principals of schools to co-operate with the monitors in their assignment or risk unpleasant consequences as their schools could be sanctioned by the state and examination conducting bodies.
He added that the most serious resistance to the initiative against examination malpractices have come from private schools, a lot of which are established as "commercial centres for huge-scale examination malpractices", thus blurring the image of Rivers State in books of examination bodies generally.