IBADAN — THE Registrar of the National Examinations Councils (NECO), Prof. Dibu Ojerinde has accused proprietors of private secondary schools of being responsible for the high rate of examination malpractices in the country.
Delivering the founder’s day lecture of Atanda Group of Schools in Ibadan, he specifically alleged that the proprietors, in an attempt to boost the performance of their students, engage in sharp practices.
Said he: "There is the general feeling that most private schools are the centres of examination malpractices in Nigeria. When we consider the number of candidates whose results are cancelled yearly by NECO in SSCE, this observation will appear true.
"Many private schools house what we now popularly call “miracle centers”. These are schools where the NECO SSCE is supposed to take place normally. However, during the exam, proprietors and principals who want to make money from lazy and criminally minded candidates arrange to ‘rig’ the examination”.
Ojerinde explained further that those proprietors hire people, including their teachers, who answer questions for their special candidates who pay special fees in the hope of getting good grades, thereby putting the integrity of private schools at stake.
“NECO is however grateful for the existence of a number of schools that remain good examples among the decaying league of private schools”, Professor Ojerinde said, and commended proprietors of private secondary schools for assisting the Government in carrying the nation’s Educational burden and solicited financial assistance to them.
According to him “Government has not encouraged private secondary schools enough. Private schools have taken a large portion of the education burden off the government. This being so, government should reciprocate by assisting these schools through a programme of grants-in-aid. It is not fair enough for the private schools to bear all their financial burden (one hundred per cent) without government's assistance”.
The NECO boss was however, unhappy with state governments for taking over the schools “as if they are factories producing goods that are sold at huge profits”.
"This badly affects the budget of the schools. The state governments should know that education is first and foremost a social service. The Association of Private Schools should find a way of negotiating this problem with the affected governments,” he added.
