Uji Abdullahi Iliyasu explains what education is andexamines the fundamental causes of examination malpractices in schools and recommends that Nigeria learns from the Singaporean experience to curtail the menace.
Background
It is often embarrassing that Nigerians, of elite class or the masses, confuse education and literacy. Education and literacy are two different words with cognate meanings. Sometimes one overlaps the other. Sometimes they stand aside, in friendliness.
Many education philosophers agreed that education begins from the day an individual is born and ends when he dies. But some even agree that education goes with the dead to the great beyond. This group argues that individuals are equipped to meet their creator with the scriptural education they acquired and worked with from the mortal world.
In all, education, many philosophers agree, is what remains after we have forgotten all we learned in school, western, Arabic, French, or the like.
This means education, whether in formal school setting or at home, is the same. Formal education in school equips an individual with literacy which is the ability to read and write, while the non formal segment of education trains an individual in everyday living trends, imparted in the child by parents, family members or the significant others.
Education, in a broader sense, is a change in behaviour. Our parents, siblings, extended family members and peer groups, change our behaviour as we interact with them. Although the change might occur in the subconscious or sublimely. This means that no hour goes by without and individual getting hold of an ounce of education.
It suggests that all men are educated. This also means that among all men who are educated, some are literate while others are not.
What we see here is that success in life is not entirely dependent on how far an individual acquire classroom education. It is how far an individual makes use of his intellectual faculty.
Literatures abound to show that one of the greatest scientists the world has known, Thomas Edison who invented electric bulb had never seen the four walls of school. Those who excel in school grades in high schools and tertiary institutions often end up as mediocre or even failure in their chosen fields.
In scholarly discourse, nature and nurture controversy plays a significant role in an individual’s life. A very bright graduate is likely hindered by the environment he lives in. And a very dull person is likely helped by the environment he finds himself.
We get the message more from Edison himself who says, “Genius is 99 per cent perspiration, 1 per cent inspiration.”
We often find that the never-do-well from school became men of history later in life because they were determined, resolute in their pursuits and then succeed. But those who cringe at an obstacle and give way go extinct even with their ‘genie heads’.
Therefore, education is not all about excellent certificates as Nigerian education policy hangs on to.
Why exam malpractice?
Examination malpractice in schools originates in the country’s overdependence on certificate qualification. People who pass through the university with excellent degrees often come out without the institutions passing through them. They avoid all social activities to focus on the class of degree they set for themselves or their parents set for them; the class necessary for their kind of job in lucrative public service or multinational corporations. In the school, they make sure they succeed in acquiring marks by hook or crook. More often than not, the need for higher grades leads to cheating in the exam halls or engaging in sex-for-marks by female students.
In secondary schools, children are expected to pass with at five credits, which must include Mathematics and English Language. So in order to pass, students leave the cities and towns where security agents cannot be compromised because of the nearness of their command to remote areas where they pass at ease. Usually the principals of those out-of-the-way schools otherwise called miracle centres, taxed the candidates through a pool referred to as “help money”.
Nowadays, students in public secondary schools hardly complete their schooling in their original schools. In final years, they migrate to their village schools in search of credits in English Language and Mathematics.
The three domains of education
In Nigeria, parents, school administrators and stakeholders care only about the cognitive aspect of education.
In an all-round education, a child must be well developed in the cognitive, the affective and the psychomotor aspects of education. The cognitive aspect develops the child’s intellectual faculty; the affective recognises the child’s character or emotional traits. Is the child neat, respectful, participatory in school activities, introvert or extrovert, among others, are known in this area. In psychomotor domain, teachers bring out in children their latent talents and potential. For instance, the game the child plays in sports, the child’s talent in music, acting, leadership role, among others, fall within this domain.
For true national development, Nigeria must go away from the certificate qualification craze to practical experiences in teaching/learning experiences
The Singapore example
Singapore education system supports the development of children’s strengths and social skills. The students produce very good academic results and often pursue excellent careers, yet the government saw the need to wipe grading system in the education to remain flexible and guarantee a high quality of education.
The education system in Singapore allows children choose their career in secondary school level. At this stage, they can decide whether they wish to attend a normal secondary school, or a specialised school.
School children in Singapore, beginning from this year, are not to be ranked by examination results.
Singapore has long been an educational high-achiever, endorsing rote learning and long study hours to propel school children toward exam success, but this is no longer the Singapore’s national thinking.
Discussions, homework and quizzes are set to replace marks and grades as the preferred method of collecting information on the performance of young school children starting in 2019. And exams for primary One and Two children will be abolished.
Marks for subjects will be rounded off to the nearest whole number to de-emphasise academic success.
“Learning is not a competition,” states Ong Ye Kung, Singapore’s education minister.
“The Ministry of Education (MOE) is planning a series of changes aimed at discouraging comparisons between student performances and encourage individuals to concentrate on their own learning development.
“To this end, primary and secondary school report books will no longer indicate whether a pupil finishes top or bottom of the class, while subject and group averages, overall total marks and minimum and maximum grades are set to disappear. School reports will not show underlined or highlighted failing grades or record a pass or fail result at the end of year.”
Unless Nigeria follows the Singaporean experience, examination malpractices will go on. Now is the time to effect the changes.
