Axing Examination Malpractices From Taproot!

Certificate examinations rounding off the 2024-2025 academic year have all been written at both the basic and secondary education levels across the country. As the fever dwindles for candidates who sat the different examinations, the teaching corps is fully drawn with marking the scripts and deliberating in view of publishing the results in the days or weeks ahead. This will certainly be the decider on how well the learners retained the year-long work.
Like any test of knowledge, the outcome of the examinations will not favour all. There are always the successful and unsuccessful ones, which gives room for mixed feelings at the end. Whatever the results obtained, the context under which the different examinations held calls for deep reflection. More so on the future of the country and especially the calibre of people who could either improve what is existing now or further worsen the situation.                                       Government has been working tooth and nail to better the examination process.
The country’s educational authorities have constantly placed a high premium on fairness where ethics are no longer optional for some. Understandably so as the dishonest or unethical examination practices employed by some learners and malicious individuals to gain advantage over others, have greatly undermined the integrity and fairness of the process. Sneaking into the examination hall with prepared material following the leakage of questions or speculation that this is or that question could come, as has been the case, left many honest citizens bewildered. It was therefore high time government vigorously fought the irritating ill.
Indeed, efforts to curb the disgraceful but almost incessant examination malpractices got a serious boost this year with firm and visibly applied examination best practices ranging from the time of arrival in the examination halls to controls on the pupils and students. Those who wrote the GCE, for example, can testify of how uncompromising supervisors and invigilators were with the stated time and controls over the students. Some of the candidates who came a few minutes after time simply had their teeth to gnash as they were denied entry into the hall. It is even reported that some of them attempted bribing the invigilators to let them in after the stated time; while others resorted to bullying and threats when they met the rock.  It was hard for many observers, but that was the rule that had to be respected, irrespective of who the candidate was. That some of them were searched deep into their pants and even beyond, tells of the obvious resolve to curb the upsetting but rather raging ill. Timely move worth keeping! 
As the fraudsters innovated in their tactics to gain undue favour and obtain certificates they do not deserve, the invigilators reportedly drew full length in their search mechanisms. That is why shoes were removed, uniforms searched and turned in and out and every part of the body combed to ensure that no student got in with prepared material. Since no human endeavour is ever perfect, it is possible that some at last cheated and hopes are high that the examiners will detect such in the marking process and dish out appropriate sanctions on the candidates, perpetrators and schools found guilty of any examination malpractices. Common knowledge teaches that such untiring and innovative efforts are capable of deterring those still nursing hopes of doing so in future exams. The fight against the ill absolutely needs to intensify!
Indeed, many are still at a loss how the country got to a situation where some children, parents and even teachers think that even the ugly must be done to obtain success. Unfair indeed! The full-drawn crusade against examination fraud couldn’t have been otherwise looking at the damage such nasty behaviours leave on the image of the country and its future. The youth are the hope for the future. A country that depends on youth who fraud their way through the academic ladder cannot therefore...