Tunji Alausa, the minister of education, says the federal government is considering the establishment of a national examination malpractice tribunal to serve as a deterrent to others by promptly prosecuting examination infractions.
Alausa spoke in Abuja while receiving a committee report on the improvement of quality examinations.
The minister said setting up of such tribunal would improve the quality of examinations in the country, while affirming the recommendations of the 17-member committee, headed by Ishaq Oloyede, the registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation board (JAMB).
He assured that all 12-point recommendations contained in the report would be carried out, adding that the government would use every resource at its disposal to combat the threat of exam cheating.
“Let me assure all the committee members that you have done so much work here, and all the recommendations you have given us as a government, we will implement every single one of them,” the minister said.
“All the 12 recommendations that you rolled out, everyone will agree with me today that none of them will be impossible to implement.
“They are all practicable things. Those that will be implemented now, we will do that right away.”
The minister inaugurated the committee in January, and it submitted its interim report after five months of extensive work.
The committee also recommended that documents, including certificates, registration, and result slips, should contain the national identification number (NIN), photograph, and date of birth of candidates, to guard against identity theft and impersonation.
“All invigilators and supervisors must register through NIN and subscribe to the examination body’s short code, using the same pattern of 55019/66019 of JAMB to track and have full information about the examination officials, including examiners, supervisors, and invigilators,” the committee recommended.
“Swapping of Invigilators and Supervisors should commence with effect from the 2025 private SSCE due to the strong views against student swapping expressed by the four concerned examination bodies (WAEC, NECO, NABTEB, and NBAIS).
“Except where impossible, Invigilators and Supervisors should always be public officials, teachers on pensionable appointments
“The standard requirements of examination halls/centres should not be waived for any school, while the recommended seating arrangement should be 1.5m by 1.2m, or 1.8 sqm per candidate,” the committee stated.
The committee also recommended that all examination halls and centres should be equipped with stationary CCTV cameras for surveillance and monitoring purposes.
” In addition, every examination centre shall have a mini control room where the CCTV camera is monitored for urgent and immediate alert.”
The committee also recommended that examination bodies shall jointly own central control facilities for their use during examinations to save cost; adding that body camcorders should be deployed in examination halls and centres for effective monitoring.
Also recommended by the committee was that, at the point of entry into basic school, every pupil must generate a unique code which is linked to his/her NIN, which must be identified with the pupil throughout his/her educational journey in Nigeria.
