The last three years have seen
an increase in on-line transactions in the country's education system. Examining
bodies like the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), West African
Examinations Council (WAEC) and the National Examinations Council (NECO) have
adopted the on-line option in the checking of results, lodging of complaints and
even in obtaining interim hard copies of results. The West African Examinations
Council went a step further recently with the introduction of on-line
registration for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
These developments are commendable. They are in line with the
global tendency towards an inter-linked, fast and efficient paperless society.
Like every other on-line option, the new trend will make transactions less
cumbersome. If handled properly, it will also invariably save time, money and
energy as well as boost the new found interest of the youths in modern
technology.
The education sector, by the new developments, is also
exposed to the vagaries of a fast, boundary less, vulnerable system that
cyberspace has become. It is common knowledge that crooks, scammers and
criminals of every hue have now moved shop to cyberspace thereby rendering it
more vulnerable than ever. No sector or data left on-line can safely be assumed
to be a hundred per cent protected.
Added to these are the peculiar developmental problems of
Nigeria such as lack of adequate infrastructure to keep computers and other
needed software and hardware running. Also bunched with this is the still
existing massive computer illiteracy among teachers and students. These problems
raise fears of costly system failures and collapse. It again magnifies the
problem of data inputting, retrieval and presentation which has plagued manual
handling by examining bodies.
There is also the real and present danger of tampering with
stored data going by the constant complaint to such effects by bankers and
corporations who undertake on-line transactions in Nigeria. Cases abound of site
cloning, scamming, alteration of site contents and numerous other fraudulent
activities that have led to clear warnings on several corporations' sites in
Nigeria.
However, despite all these seemingly overwhelming odds
against on-line transactions in the education system, it is still a welcome
development. It has never been a wise decision to abandon promising trends due
to their shortcomings. It is noteworthy that some problems of on-line
transactions are not peculiar to Nigeria and have never discouraged other
nations from daily expanding areas of usage of on-line options.
What needs to be done, however, is a thorough appraisal of
our situation. This will naturally help in the fine-tuning of the system and the
provision of solutions to the problems on the ground.
First, the government, non-governmental organisations and
concerned individuals and corporations should mount awareness campaigns on the
usefulness of computers and the place of the computer and cyber space knowledge
in the evolving world order. This will, hopefully generate more than the present
level of interest in the acquisition of computer knowledge. However, this will
come easier if there is a marked increase in access to computers and internet
facilities. The government therefore has a duty to increase the supply of
computers and internet facilities in all schools in the federation.
Secondly, the cost of on-line transactions involving students
has to come down or be eliminated entirely. Most students barely manage to
scrape together bare essentials and it is not advisable to impose more burdens
on them by way of purchasing scratch cards which are often available in banks
located far from the students especially in the hinterlands. We recommend that
the use of scratch cards should be phased out and that each candidate be given a
pass word with which to access the site at the time of registration.
Thirdly, security has to be tightened on cyberspace traffic from the
educational sector sites. This should form part of a general cyber space
policing plan by the Nigerian government. The educational sector and the traffic
generated from it such as examinations results must be given special protection.
For this the authorities should adopt the standard security procedure of always
being a step ahead of the criminal and raising the fences by the day.
