By Hajaratu Kalokoh
The Sierra Leone government is working on a legislation that specifically deals with examination malpractice, amidst growing concern over the spate of the menace.
Minister of Basic and Secondary Education, Alpha Timbo said there is a growing culture of examination malpractice in schools that they are determined to tackle it. He made the revelation at the National Primary School Examination Data Conference hosted by the Freetown City Council last week.
“We are in the process of putting together a bill on examination malpractices that will criminalize much of what currently goes on before, during and after the examination. This is a venture that we are going to pursue vigorously,” he said.
The news comes in the wake of a wave of examination malpractice scandals that have rocked the country, raising deep concerns over the erosion of standards in the education system.
Public examinations have come under serious scrutiny in the last two years, characterized by arrests and sometime protests by students involved in it.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has been leading the crusade against the practice. Last week the Commission sparked a huge debate over human rights when it paraded four teachers who were caught on Saturday September 7 cheating as part of the ongoing West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination. Exactly one week later, on Saturday 14 September, the Commission arrested seven other people writing examination in a private house.
During the same week, the University of Sierra Leone rusticated and expelled 65 students for examination malpractice, as part of their own efforts to crack down on the act.
Timbo said President Julius Maada Bio has already set up a committee to look at the proposal, and that the Chief Minister Professor David Francis is chairing this Committee. The Education Minister added that in addition to the law, they are also considering suggestions for a national dialogue over the issue.
Timbo said the District Education Officers and local authorities must also take responsibility in tackling exams malpractice.
“The examination malpractice culture is not built at the primary level, it is more at the junior and secondary level where you have a greater challenge,” he said.
On Monday the 2019/2020 academic year began with over 2million children returning to school.
President Bio was quoted reiterating his government’s stance against exams malpractice.
“Parents, teachers and pupils all have responsibilities to ensure we curb examination malpractice. Parents who give monies to their children to engage in examination malpractice are as guilty as teachers who receive such monies to aid examination malpractice and pupils who participate in the malpractice,” he said at a ceremony inaugurating a newly refurbished school in Juba.
© 2019 Politico Online
