Tunji Alausa, minister of education, has disclosed that examination questions were allegedly sold for as little as N3,000 before candidates sat for National Examinations Council (NECO) papers, describing the scale of examination malpractice in Nigeria as ‘mind-boggling’.
Alausa disclosed this on Thursday, at a meeting with the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools and other education sector stakeholders, and cautioned parents, teachers, proprietors, principals, invigilators and students against conduct that could compromise the credibility of public examinations.
The minister said malpractice had for years gone largely unchecked in the country, creating a system that penalised students who prepared diligently while rewarding those with unauthorised access to leaked materials. He warned that this dynamic risked drawing honest candidates into cheating simply to remain competitive.
“Before she [the Minister of State for Education] and I came, the acceptance of examination malpractice, cheating and examination leakages in this country was mind-boggling, and the country accepted it. It was a nightmare and the danger was that ‘good students would also become bad,” he said.
Narrating a specific case, the minister alleged that a former NECO registrar identified as Ibrahim Wushishi had run a scheme through which examination questions were obtainable ahead of test dates.
