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The Nigerian Government has proposed setting up a National Examination Malpractice Court to swiftly prosecute exam cheats and curb malpractice nationwide.

Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, affirmed this recommendation of the 17-man committee headed by Professor Is-haq Oloyede, Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) as chairman, on Improvement of the Quality of Examination in Nigeria.

The committee which the Minister inaugurated in January this year submitted its interim report to him on Friday after about five months of extensive work, coming up with far-reaching recommendations aimed at improving the quality of examination and curbing examination malpractices in Nigeria.

Oloyede, in one of the recommendations, asked the Federal Ministry of Education to interface with the National Assembly to enact an Act to establish a National Examination Malpractice Court/Tribunal for prompt prosecution of examination malpractices to serve as a deterrent to others.

Alausa, in his response, assured the committee members that all the 12-point recommendations would be implemented, saying the government would deploy all its machinery to fight the menace of examination malpractice in Nigeria.

His words: “All the 12 recommendations that you reeled out, everyone will agree with me today that none of those recommendations will be impossible to implement. They are all practicable things. The one that we will implement now, we will do that right away, and once we leave here, myself and the permanent Secretary have work to do”.

Some of the recommendations of the committee include: “All documents, including certificates, registration and result slips, etc., should contain National Identification Number (NIN), photograph and date of birth 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 in order so track and have full information about the examination officials, including examiners, supervisors and invigilators.

“Swapping Invigilators and Supervisors, not candidates, 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) pertaining to security, logistics and the fact that centre details are traditionally printed on candidates’ certificates

“Except where absolutely 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.

“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.

“All four concerned examination bodies shall jointly own central control facilities for their use during their examinations to save costs. Body camcorders should be deployed in examination halls and centres for effective monitoring.

“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.

“The Federal Ministry of Education should interface with the National Assembly to enact an Act to establish a National Examination Malpractice Court/Tribunal for prompt prosecution of examination malpractices to serve as deterrent for others.

“The non-implementation of the 1999 Examination Malpractice Act suggests either a lack of political will or non-implementability. Consequently, the Committee recommends a review of the Act in such a manner that it can be immediately implemented to curb examination malpractice.

“Rather than wait till 2027 as initially suggested, the Computer-Based Examination (CBE) should be implemented for objective questions in 2025 private examinations and in full for school candidates in 2026.

“The 30 per cent Continuous Assessment component in the Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations has become a veritable source of corruption in the examination system due to the fraudulent process of inputting the scores in arrears.

“It is therefore recommended that the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) and any other FME agency, which must have recommended the policy for the approval of the National Council on Education (NCE), should immediately be requested to review the Continuous Assessment System”.’