Osinbajo: Cheating often done with the collusion of parents, teachers

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday said that parents and teachers connive with students to perpetrate exam malpractices.

Osinbajo said this during the opening of the 65th annual council meeting of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) in Abuja.

The VP, who represented President Muhammadu Buhari, lauded the council for standing the test of time, despite the challenges of an increasing number of subscribers, among others.

The professor of Law said it was the collective responsibility of educators to redefine the meaning and scope of education and success.

“Often, cheating is with the collusion of parents and teachers. But this only reflects the larger failure of values in our societies,” Osinbajo said.

“Public servants and many in private sector positions who have unexplainable phenomenal wealth are celebrated in one form or the other – alumni recognitions, honorary degrees, chieftaincy titles and even high religious titles.

“The end, it appears today, justifies the means, which explains why cheating in exams and fake certificates simply do not generate the sort of outrage that such conduct would have generated years ago.

“As this is a gathering of educators and I believe I can also describe myself as one, permit me the indulgence of some reflection on the idea of refocusing our philosophy of education in our sub-region.

“It is in my respectful view that it is more important now than ever before, to redefine success.

“Somehow we must break through the false notion that success is obtainable by miracles and not hard work.”

Osinbajo, therefore, called on educators as policy makers to set the moral and ethical standards that emphasise integrity of the means by which success is attained, and what it means to be successful.

This, he said, “will mean using and developing curricula that emphasise integrity, self-denial, and hard work”.

Osinbajo faulted the “la cram, la pour, la forget” habit of students, while informing teachers on the need to raise thinking and inquisitive students.

“Learning by rote or cramming is how we have always done it. This excludes critical thinking, introspection and analysis, and so it essentially involves cramming materials and regurgitating it at exams.

“Education must rigorously encourage curiosity. The mind of the young ought to be trained to question scientific and social phenomena – to think, to reason, to interrogate issues, to contest ideas, to be introspective.

“We need to encourage an atmosphere where people ask questions. So, people are interrogating all of the things that they come across.

“So, I think that our emphasis must be on encouraging a thinking society, a society that can question,” he said.