Issues of examination malpractices in Nigeria, especially those perpetrated via the internet have become a major concern that has troubled stakeholders and defied several correctional approaches put forward by different examination bodies.
In the last concluded 2018 examination organised by the West Africa Examination Council, WAEC, there were several reports that revealed how students in Nigeria were offered answers to test questions hours by several websites and blogs before the exam papers were written.
TheNewsGuru in its findings learnt that some of the websites which offered answers to students in the WAEC April 18, examination are still in full operation and discovered that government’s intervention in the battle against examination malpractices is a key factor that can aid exam bodies in preventing future recurrences.
How expo websites released answers to candidates:
Our investigation showed some of the online portals reportedly gave students the information on how to view answers either receiving the answers as text messages or passwords to specific areas of their websites where full answers are obtained.
In order to lure exam writers to patronise their services, the said domains only leak part of the answers while urging them [candidates] to mail them if interested in the illicit service.
Most of the websites sells answers to theory and Objective questions between N400 and N800.
After payment, candidates, who subscribe to the result peddling websites get the answers to the questions they request delivered to their phones.
These are the five websites that have allegedly been exposed in the exam malpractice scandal.
One of the expo websites, http://examsort.com/, prides itself as the number one exam runs platform that sells answers to exam questions in exchange for recharge cards we discovered .
During the exam period another, www.codedclass.com, shared info with examination candidates on their fraudulent acts.
The information reads: “Special package! Maths Runs. Subscribe for maths early to get registered early. Good News: tell you friends that www.codedclass.com have (sic) mathematics answers and will be posted sent by 11-12am Wednesday midnight. Mathematics questions are now ready!
“Ensure you subscribe to get it before time. Direct=N1,000 MTN card; Password=N500 MTN card. Forward the card, your name, your subject to 090xxxxxxx. Transfer is allowed. Please don’t call just; send your details because the number might be switched off/divert due to too much calls.”
Other websites advertising answers include morebaze.com, humbleloaded.com.ng and coadedclass.com, examcrown.com
We need government intervention to fully prevent exam malpractices – WAEC
The Public Affairs officer of WAEC, Mr. Demianus Ojijeogu, told TheNewsguru that the council doesn’t have the staff strength that can follow all the supervisors from its custodial centres to the exam halls but highlighted measures put in place measures to forestall leakage of exam papers.
His words, “We were on those websites too [expo sites], the council sponsored some people to register and be on the sites to monitor and see what is going on, we subscribed and paid and what we observed is that after the examination has commenced the questions were snapped and forwarded to mercenaries to solve the questions.
“We traced the numbers of questions papers that were captured in the pictures to some centers outside Lagos, our intention is to make arrest, however, when we discovered that those who sent the exam questions were not candidates so we couldn’t make any headway.
He said the council discovered afterwards that some supervisors, principals were culpable in the process while stressing that the council did its own best to ensure there were no actual leakages.
“Some people were carrying fake WAEC Identification cards and moving from across different examination centres, gain access and snap the question papers, and in other cases supervisors, principals were culpable- we even had to change question papers in some critical case
If we have succeeded in ensuring that no insider in our council leaked the questions how do we prevent the supervisors who come to carry the question papers in the morning? So, this is a major weak link in the whole chain” He added
Speaking on how the sales of answers online can be prevented in the future, Ojijeogu said intervention of government via means of executive orders or legislation is one of the potent way forward for the exam body.
He said, “The future of this battle against malpractices on online space is through active government participation. For instance, in Algeria the government had to shut down internet in areas where exam are being conducted for about an hour. If a candidate then manages to smuggle phone into the examination hall and there are no internet access in such premises, then candidates will be forced to go back to reading.
We are working round the clock to ensure we prevent this menace, the council has reported the case to State Criminal Investigation and Intelligent Department (SCIID), Panti in Lagos and the police have commenced thorough investigations, we are also beaming the searchlight on ourselves” He ended