Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has encouraged other states to follow Lagos State Government’s lead in combating examination misconduct.
Lagos has penalized 27 schools N500,000 apiece for examination misconduct during last year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). However, he believes Lagos should do more.
Oloyede, who was in Lagos Wednesday last week, to support candidates with challenges registering for this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), said Lagos demonstrated exemplary leadership by sanctioning the schools.
He said it was the way to go in stamping out the menace of examination malpractice by some private schools which are desperate to showcase excellent results for their students without making commensurate efforts.
“I like what Lagos State did yesterday or the day before by imposing N500,000 on some of these schools and some other restrictions but they should go beyond that. If I were Lagos State government I won’t impose N500,000 because the emphasis is not on the money I would just have deregistered the schools as an example and I will move all the candidates elsewhere because these are people who are destroying the school system.
“I believe that states government should go beyond Lagos government. Yes, Lagos government did and other states will cover up they will even be fighting the examination body that it didn’t happen. Lagos came out and impose 500,000 but to me, that’s dirty money that should not go into our common pool. They should better go and give the money to motherless homes because the emphasis will be shifted to money. What they ought to have done is to arrest the principal of the school, prosecute the principal, prosecute the teachers and deregister the school.
“What they did for them is that they will not be able to register for two years but that’s not enough. Deregister the whole school, tell the whole school that once you’re caught in this thing the school will be confiscated by the government you do something that shows that you are serious about eradication,” he said.
A statement by JAMB’s Head of Media, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, noted that the Board had been hard on examination cheats, introducing new innovations to fight examination malpractice.
