Tunji Alausa: Malpractice has invaded Nigerian education, discouraged hard work

Tunji Alausa says the education ministry is out to tackle exam malpractice and pave the way for a fair school system.

On Tuesday, Alausa was on a Channels TV show where he spoke of Nigeria’s plan to end the mass malpractice called miracle centres.

The minister said allowing students to cheat during examinations is a disservice to others who work genuinely hard to earn good grades.

“We have problems with examination malpractice which we are addressing frontally as a government,” Alausa said.

“This is not acceptable because if you let people cheat, you will disincentivise the hardworking people.

“We will tackle this issue of miracle centre, this pervasive exam cheating decisively.

“We would bring a complete end to this menace that has invaded our educational system.”

Alausa recently inaugurated a committee to improve the quality of examinations in Nigeria.

He said the education ministry has set a 2027 target to make the SSCE system 100 per cent computer-based.

The minister expressed concern that some administrators of Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (SSCE) may be generating results for tertiary school admission-seeking candidates without any test.

He emphasised the government’s commitment to tackling widespread examination malpractices and enhancing the overall quality of the nation’s educational assessments.

Alausa said tackling examination leakages requires a holistic approach, as students are not the only culprits in examination malpractices.

“I will monitor it so closely. If it doesn’t stop, there will be consequences,” Alausa said.

“This entire indiscipline and racketeering in our exam system must stop. It’s absolute nonsense.”

In 2024, a total of 215,267 candidates (11.92 per cent of the total) who wrote the internal SSCE of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) had their results withheld in connection with various reported cases of exam malpractice.

For the same exam in 2023, a much higher 16.29 percent of the sitting candidates had their results withheld for similar reasons.

The National Examination Council (NECO) reported that 8,437 and 12,030 candidates who wrote its SSCE in 2024 and 2023 respectively committed malpractice.