By Mumini AbdulKareem
Unless the Kwara State Government move beyond the rhetorics and demonstrate the political will and determination to penalise affected schools recently derecognised by the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC), for various forms of cheating in the 2019 Senior Secondary Certificate Examination, the state might experience a worse scenario this year, National Pilot learnt last night.
WAEC last week sanctioned no fewer than 165 affected schools to be used as examination centres across the three senatorial districts in the state and fined each of them N250,000.
The development will cost the government over N30m.
National Pilot in its last edition exclusively obtained and published the list of the affected schools in parts in its newspaper and website which included those owned by missionaries and other religious bodies from the Muslim and Christian faiths.
However, the list thereafter went viral on numerous online and social media platforms within and outside the state after it was retrieved from our online and republished on many social media platform.
The situation attracted strong condemnation from educationists and senior citizens many of who expressed shock at the large number of the affected schools involved in the incident across the state.
But a top government official who spoke in confidence told this reporter that the state might be heading for the worse this year except the government addressed the decay with the attention it deserves.
“What culminated in the unfortunate and saddening scenario that we are seeing today was the inability of the past governments to be decisive in dealing with matters of exam malpractices and other related untoward issues like the “miracle centres” that bedevilled our education sector.
“During the last administration, in an attempt to deal with the situation bearing in mind the need to prioritise the reformation of the affected schools in any particular year rather than meting out appropriate sanctions, the situation has continued to defile solution and more and more schools in the state are keying in.
“This year, if the same approach is adopted, I can tell you that it will be worse than what we have now. Many of the schools believe that will get away with it at the end of the day and so the circle continues and it has almost spiralled out of proportion.
“So, if the government wants to really halt this madness that has brought shame to the state and at extra cost to scare resources, then it must be ready to make sacrifices and take decisive action against the culprits. The worrying aspect is that both the so called religious and missionaries schools including private and public establishments and even parents are all involved in this destructive path to knowledge that we have set our wards and youth”, the source added.
Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq in a statement by his media aide expressed sadness over the development describing it as unfortunate. He further threatened heavy sanctions against school heads or officials caught aiding and abetting examination malpractices in the state.
According to him, the examinations which were held between April 8 and May 31, 2019, affected 122 public secondary schools and 43 private schools adding that the development is the worst in the history of the state.
“This administration is sad to note that WAEC has derecognised 165 schools in Kwara because of widespread cases of cheating in the 2019 senior secondary certificate examination in which some top education officials and parents were implicated.
“This is very unfortunate and this administration will not hesitate to sanction school heads or officials that ever engage in such conduct in the future.
“The administration also urges parents to desist from encouraging cheating in the examination. We call on Kwarans to expose this cancer.
“As a result of such incidents of aiding and abetting of examination malpractices, this administration will now have to pay N30.5 million of scarce public resources to get the necessary approval for the affected public schools to host WAEC examinations in the future.
“This is avoidable. Examination malpractice constitutes some of the worst hindrances to a bright future because it negates the time tested principles of hard work, diligence, and thirst for knowledge and excellence”, the statement added.
