By James Tamba Lebbie
In my few years of involvement as a lecturer in the processes of selecting suitably qualified applicants for the Mass Communications programme at Fourah Bay College, I have tried time and again to reflect on the credibility or otherwise of public examination since it remains the key requirement for entrance into almost all tertiary institutions in Sierra Leone. However, while I have been able to come up with a rational explanation accounting for the practice, I’ve been able to come to the conclusion that public examinations are fast losing their relevance because of extensive examination malpractice.
In his treatise, Public Examinations in Nigeria and Punishing Malpractice: Human Rights Perspective, Ndifon & Ndifon (2012) defines examination malpractice is “as cheating at examination or any act intended to benefit or give undue advantage to oneself or another by deceit or fraud, before, during and after examination”. They point out that this definition is inadequate in that “it lacks specificity”. They maintain that the definition “does not relate to any specific acts or incidence, persons, time or place”. This weakness in definition apparently has been strengthened by Badmus and Odor (1996) who defined examination malpractice as “wrongdoing in terms of construction, custodianship, administration, marking and release of results, with the intention of conferring advantage on some candidates over others”. The extent to which all these unsavory practices take place is the subject of this piece.
To return to what informed my curiosity about this practice, the Mass Communication Division of the Institute of Library, Information and Communication Studies is, as far as I know, the only programme at FBC that requires applicant to sit to a special English examination conducted by head of the English Department, and passing that examination is the key to pursuing the Mass Communication progamme. Every year, hundreds apply for the programme with qualified West African Senior Secondary School Examination (WASSCE) entry requirements but only scores pass that special English examination. For instance, for the 2012/13 academic year which has just commenced, of the over 300 applicants that took the special English examination, only about 80 secured the threshold for acceptance into the programme. And these hundreds of applicants that applied possess the University entry requirement of five and four credits (including English) for the Degree and Diploma programmes respectively.
This therefore begs the question as to whether the WASSCE results in possession of all those applicants are a true reflection of their academic outputs. I will probably beg to differ. And my position is informed by the apparently fraudulent nature of the conduct of these examinations. This situation is also not helped by the “smart” move by candidates taking these examinations to outwit the system. And they do it in several dubious ways. But first I will put the West African Examinations Council on the spotlight.
Established in December 1951 for the conduct of public examinations in Anglophone West Africa after the legislative assemblies of Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia (Liberia joined in 1974 at WAEC’s annual meeting held in Lagos) passed the West African Examinations Council Ordinance No. 40 approving its creation, WAEC started operations in 1952 with the mandate to coordinate exams, and issuing of certificates to students in individual members countries. And for many years of its existence, quality and credibility among other virtues were the main features of the services of WAEC. At that time, “a team of well-trained and highly motivated staff” were in charge of administering examinations that were valid and relevant to the educational aspirations of member countries. However, the situation now appears to a far cry from what used to obtain.
Nowadays, the security of examination questions papers and of the entire process of marking exams scripts are either poor or non-existent. Almost every examination conducted by WAEC is marred by malpractices either in the form of leaking question papers ahead of the examinations to candidates, or “sexing” up the grades by poorly-motivated and/or examiners with moral deficit contracted by WAEC. It is not uncommon today to hear of WAEC examiners publicizing their assignment of marking WAEC scripts, all with the object of attracting bribery in cash or in kind.
On the part of the candidates, many would leave no stone unturned to ensure they secure a “short cut” to getting good grades; and the methods they used range from the orthodox to radical initiatives. Traditionally, some candidates would resort to “spying” during examination period and would even go the extra mile to have access to examination questions through whatever means. But they have also devised other radical steps to ensure they achieve their goals. Some candidates are no longer interested in joining the conventional school setting for learning. They would instead join special “syndicate classes” or schools which have that capacity and tricks to teach them how to answer questions and pass exams. And many of the teachers who run these so-called syndicate classes are those contracted by WAEC to serve as its examiners. The unfortunate outcome of such an enterprise is producing students with complete requirements for entry into the university but who are not rounded enough to face the rigours of university work.
Other candidates will take a step further by ensuring that they enroll for their exams in faraway obscure schools where vigilance and surveillance of examination invigilators are minimal at best. There are candidates residing in the Western Urban District of Freetown who will prefer taking their WASSCE exams in the Western Rural District towns like Allen Town, Waterloo or Tombo for instance, where manpower for strict invigilation of exams are few and far between. I have heard stories wherein students even connive with some heads of schools to make arrangements for their exams to be written for them by someone else – usually an experienced teacher hired for such purposes. Other stories include the practice of candidates contributing money to compromise invigilators so that they will turn a blind eye to malpractices during exams period. And if that was unsatisfactory, some candidates also have the ability to scout and know the examiners marking their scripts. I will leave you to imagine the likely outcome of such an encounter.
And the issue of examination malpractice - often through the connivance of both students and teachers - has been extended to tertiary institutions throughout the country. Stories abound of lecturers harassing students for money all over the place and the students lack the courage to complain either because of the culture of secrecy and the lack of structures that will protect the student if they decided to blow the whistle, or because the students are lazy and therefore want grades through other means. Students in Freetown and Bo for instance have recounted to me incidences in which lecturers had asked them to pay for sexing up their grades. And paying these monies follows the format of paying their college tuition fees. The students would pay the required money into a bank account and the bank slips taken to the lecturer through a class representative who often serve as a coordinator for such purposes.
As pointed out by Ndifon & Ndifon (ibid), reasons for examination malpractice, whether for public or school examinations include but not limited to the existence of dubious and fraudulent admission process “right from the primary level to the tertiary level”. And with the active connivance of some of the staff of these examination bodies, “parents get their wards admitted by all means even when they have failed the entrance examination or aptitude test” because the system is populated with college officials that have cheated their ways into our educational institutions.
But an obvious result of examination malpractice is that it put into question the integrity of the examination bodies as well as the quality of the diploma or degree earned. And as Ndifon & Ndifon (ibid) note, “both nationally and internationally, products of this system are viewed no more than illiterate graduates who lack the wherewithal to hold their own in the labour market”.
