Pres. Buhari |
President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed concern over the
menace of examination malpractices and fake certificates in the country.
He also condemned the spate at which public servants and
individuals of questionable wealth were being celebrated with alumni
recognitions, honorary degrees, chieftaincy titles and sometimes higher
religious titles.
According to him, cheating in examination and attainment of
fake certificates among Nigerians had become a normal thing because of collapse
of values in the society.
Buhari represented by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN),
expressed this view on Tuesday in Abuja, during the 65th Annual Council Meeting
of the West African Examinations Council with the theme, “65 years of
commitment to excellence in educational assessment.”
He said, “Today the attainment of wealth, power or
educational influence is the mark of success which is not necessarily a bad
thing except we are no longer concerned with the process of attaining success.”
“The end it appears today justifies the means which explains
why cheating in examinations and fake certificates simply do not generate the
sort of outrage that such conduct would have generated years ago.
“Public servants and many in the private sectors who have
unexplainable wealth are celebrated in one form or the other, alumni
recognitions, honorary degrees, chieftaincy titles and even higher religious
titles.
“Often, cheating is with the collusion of parents and
teachers. This only reflects the failure of values in our larger society.
Educational policy within that milieu of collapsed value failure is a totally
different type of task when values in society have collapsed. When values in
the society have been upturned, the role of the policy maker is completely
different from when values are maintained by and large.”
The President said Nigerians are no longer concerned about
the process of attaining success because the end justifies the means for them.
Such collapse in value, he explained, has made it difficult
for policy makers to effect change in the society.
Buhari therefore called for a change in education curricula
to reflect modern teaching methods.
He said, “It is much more important today to emphasise also
how we should teach which will obviously impact how we should examine, what
questions we should be asking and what we should be looking for in our
students. But regarding what we should teach, it is my respective view, more
important now than ever before to redefine success.”
Earlier in his remarks, Registrar of Council, WAEC, Dr. Uyi
Uwadiae, said examination malpractices remained a major challenge for the
council.
While declaring that the consequences of malpractices were
grave, he called for collaboration to tackle the scourge.
Uwadiae also called for the strengthening and enforcement of
existing legislations to combat malpractices.
The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, in his
remarks, said the Federal Government had rolled out programmes to combat some
of the challenges facing education in the country.
“The government has also entered into collaboration with
several international development partners on these issues,” he said.
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