The Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, has urged other states to emulate Lagos State Government in checking examination malpractice.
Lagos recently fined 27 schools caught perpetrating examination malpractice during last year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) N500,000 each. However he said Lagos ought to do more.

Oloyede, who was in Lagos last week to assist students who were having difficulties registering for this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), said Lagos had shown excellent leadership by punishing the schools.

He claimed it was the best method to combat the threat of examination malpractice perpetrated by some private schools wanting to show off outstanding scores for their pupils without putting in equal effort.

“I like what Lagos State did yesterday or 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 show that you are serious about eradication,” he said.

Dr. Fabian Benjamin, JAMB’s Head of Media, said in a statement that the Board had been tough on exam fraudsters, implementing innovative innovations to combat examination misconduct.

Source: The Nations