Many senior secondary school students, in their desperation to secure the maximum five credits in ‘Ordinary Level’ certificate examination, have taken to the easy option of cheating. ‘Miracle centers’ where students easily pass SSCE grades through cheating is now a thriving business across Nigeria. GABRIEL ALONTA examines the effects of the miracle-center phenomenon on the country’s education system.
It’s no longer uncommon to find candidates preparing for the Senior Secondary School Examination (SSCE) conducted by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) or the National Examination Council (NECO) desperately searching for a center where he or she can easily at least five credits pass in key subjects at one sitting.
Similar examinations such as the National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB) and even the Unified Tertiary Matriculations Examinations (UTME) are not spared in this web of cheating syndrome.
Orient Daily investigations revealed that most students have absconded from their schools and travel to remote villages to register as external candidates in order to actualise their devious scheme of cheating to pass exams. And following rising demands for such desperate students looking for a platform that assist them pass their O’Level certficates and secure high grades for their tertiary school entrance examinations, ‘miracle centers’ have since emerged and flourishing across the country.
Even as they openly discuss about ‘miracle centers’ and their success rates, many uninformed would presume, they are talking about religious centers where real miracles, signs and wonders manifest. Nay! They are talking about examination centers where school managements, teachers and supervisors assist students to pass their examination a success with little or no stress, after charging them huge sums of monies for their services.
Although accurate statistics are not available, there is strong evidence that thousands of students who obtained five credits in their WASSCE, NECO and NABTEB conducted exams or even score high grades in JAMB’s UTME, could hardly make correct sentences or pass their exams when they gain admission into tertiary institutions. Experts and stakeholders have continued to lament the negative impacts of such organized examination cheating on the quality of scholars at the tertiary levels and even graduates.
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“Most students have lost confidence and become lazy towards their studies and have often put their hope in such centres to make their ‘O’ level examination in order to be admitted into the higher institution. This has caused them more harms than good, going by the unprecedented poor performance of graduate employees in the real life situation”, declares Mr. Fidelis Nkemakor, an educationist.
Prof. Lilian-Rita Akudolu, a lecturer in the department of Educational Foundation, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, described the ‘miracle center’ phenomenon as a manifestation of the systemic corruption that has bedeviled the country’s educational system.
According to her, “people look for the easy way out because of breakdown in moral rectitude and lack of sound education foundation.
“Teachers are to be blamed for not giving this children adequate education. Parents also have a fair share of the blame because they push for their children’s success at any cost, forgetting that their children can still make it when they are well groomed.
“They are killing the children instead of helping them, because they will tread that short cut to doom. Again, the children will not read, because they believe they will cheat in the examination.
“It is in Nigeria that you see someone who has first class certificate unable to defend them largely due to lack of practical experience in school. If we don’t stop such centres, the education system will continue to collapse and remain in shambles. The few children that have the confidence in themselve by making use of their brains will soon be rubbed off/contaminated”, she stated.
The don suggested that the way out was for teachers to start instilling in the children confidence in their ability, adding that it would make them shun miracle centres.
She further called on the government to equip these schools; support teachers to attend conferences to update their knowledge regularly, noting that it would help teachers come out with their best.
Furthermore, Akudolu advised children to desist from patronising such centres, adding that they should depend on their God given abilities by gathering knowledge with which they can change the world.
On why Anambra State came 6th in the 2017 WAEC examination, the Deputy Governor, Dr. Nkem Okeke, blamed the performance of the state in the WAEC examinations to presence of miracle schools.
Okeke who questions the credibility of the management of such school, imagined how a school having just 20 persons would register over 400 persons during the registration of candidates for the WAEC examination.
He said that such moves undermine the efforts of His Excellency, Willie Obiano in maintaining high standard across the state.
The renowned economist maintained that lack of proper training of all the candidates registered contributed to the poor performance in the said examination, stressing that it was the competition in education that makes it safer for the students.
“It is only when students read that they will pass their examinations, but failure to do so, amounts to failure”.
He said that the government has not done much in the education sector despite the 26 per cent of the GDP that the United Nations recommended for education sectors across countries.
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Also commenting on the role of teachers in the fast rising miracle centres in the country, the State Secretary, Nigeria Union of Teachers, Anambra State Wing, Comrade Livinus Omini, argued that teachers had no part to play in miracle centres, pointing out that students who took their external examinations in public schools also thrive.
Omini, who said that miracles centres were never established or approved by teachers, but by the West African Examination Council (WAEC), stressed that it was the Federal Ministry of Education and WAEC that should be held responsible for any unfavourable consequences emanating from such centres.
He said that Nigeria was dubious and corrupt, which explained the continued existence of such centres nationwide, pointing out that WAEC and FME should have clamped down those centres.
According to him, “We know that it is not the common child that goes to these centres, rather the affluent and those in government who use them. It is called miracle because they help their children to pass examinations.
“It is these privileged parents that pay for the centres and not teachers. As teachers, we tell parents to encourage their children to study hard to pass examinations and not to help them to pass.
“If you start to help them cheat now, will you continue to help them pass after they have secured admission? There is an after effect on the children in the future, such as, the challenge of dropping out when they can no longer cope with university pressures”, he maintained.
A mother of three, Mrs. Ifeyinwa Okonkwo averred that students were in school to learn and be independent, saying that it was wrong for parents to register their children in such centres. Okonkwo advised parents to desist from encouraging their children to cheat in examinations, noting when the child pass, the parents would not have the joy of the success because of what was involved in accomplishing it.
Maintaining that no profession can thrive when students engage in such act, the Proprietress, Early Dew High School, insisted that no amount of reason would justify any parents registering their kids in such centres.
“Parents ought to take care of their children. You don’t just leave your child at the mercy of teachers and school. If they come back, ask them what they learn, in a situation where you do not have money to enroll them in private school, you will have to do the job of assisting them to learn”, she stated.
On whether private schools have been able to fill the lacuna created by public schools, she added, “It depends on the owners of private school. Each proprietor/proprietress has their own unique vision and passion for teaching and grooming children. “Whilst some see it as an investment opportunity and money making venture without thinking about the child’s future, others have the vision and passion for transmitting worthwhile knowledge and skills for all round development of the child”.
She lamented the decline in the reading culture of children and adult, calling on parents to beef up the rate at which they encourage their children to read. To the students, “imbibe reading culture because reading maketh a man”, she reiterated.
Chinedu Igbokwe, an intending 2018 WAEC candidate who had already registered in one of such centres already in Enugu State, told Orient Daily that he was influenced to join the bandwagon by his friends who had long registered.
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“I also chose this centre because the previous sets that wrote their exams here used to make it in a single sitting. I left my former school because we are short changed in many areas and as such, the environment may not be good for me to pass”.
On whether he was aware of the effect on the educational system,he said, “I know is not good for me nor society because it does not encourage us. Some of us may think that education is just that way and by continuing applying such measures in the future, will definitely backfire”.
It would be recalled that in the 2017 National Examination Council (NECO) Nov/Dec SSCE results, that Plateau topped the list of the examination malpractice with 943 cases, representing 21.31 per cent followed by Oyo with 884 cases, representing 19.97 per cent.Adamawa was the third on 464 cases of examination malpractice, representing 10.48 per cent.
With the 2018 May/June WAEC examination fast approaching, many students have put their faith in the hands of ‘miracle’ centres’ owners, waiting for the miracles to fall on them.
Whilst many scholars, parents and even students alike have come out to criticise and question the credibility of ‘miracle centres’, the solution may lie on individual and collective efforts towards clamping down the thriving activities of these centres for the good of our children, the education system and Nigeria at large.
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