Nigeria’s examination malpractice problem has returned to an old habit of blaming parents while the institutions responsible for education escape the hardest questions.
Development Diaries reports that former Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Is-haq Oloyede, recently argued that parents, more than students, drive examination malpractice in Nigeria, reviving debate over who should carry the greatest responsibility for protecting the integrity of public examinations.
There is some truth in the observation because some parents pay for leaked questions, buy results or pressure schools to help their children pass.
However, those actions do not remove the responsibility of the institutions established to conduct credible examinations or the governments responsible for preparing students to succeed honestly.
When students spend years learning in overcrowded classrooms without enough teachers, textbooks or laboratories, an examination becomes a test of whether the education system has done its own job.
That is where the accountability conversation should begin.
JAMB, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), the National Examinations Council (NECO) and the federal and state ministries of education all share responsibility for protecting examination integrity because preventing malpractice requires more than catching those who cheat.
Nigeria’s constitution commits government to providing equal and adequate educational opportunities, while the Universal Basic Education Act places responsibility on the state to ensure access to quality basic education.
Those commitments become difficult to defend when thousands of students arrive at examination halls after years of inadequate learning and are then judged solely on the outcome of one examination.
The consequences fall most heavily on students attending poorly funded public schools, especially those in rural and low-income communities where shortages of qualified teachers, learning materials and basic infrastructure remain common.
Girls in many of these communities already face additional barriers to completing school, and weak educational investment further reduces their chances of competing fairly.
Education researchers have consistently argued that examination integrity cannot be separated from investment in education because schools that consistently prepare students well also reduce the demand for dishonest shortcuts.
Parents should reject every form of examination malpractice, resist pressure to purchase unfair advantage for their children and work through parent-teacher associations to demand better learning conditions in public schools.
For their part, JAMB, WAEC and NECO should strengthen examination security while publicly demonstrating how they are addressing malpractice beyond enforcement alone, and the federal and state ministries of education should invest in teachers, learning materials and school infrastructure so that honest success becomes the easier choice for every student.
