Quality of future manpower

The aspiration of Nigeria to be one of the top twenty economies in the world in the nearest future will be a mere fantasy if students in our secondary schools go digital with examination malpractices. As long as there are illegal sites on the internet, exhibiting questions and answers of school certificate examination papers organized by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), one can say that Nigeria is not breeding quality manpower to drive its development agenda in the future.
One must accept that the world is in an era where spin-offs of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and internet revolutions have transformed “old economies” to “new economies”. But that does not mean that our secondary school students should use these technologies-ICT and internet- to perpetrate examination fraud and other illegalities.
The theme of this piece was inspired by a bold front-page headline on BusinessDay edition of April 25, 2018 titled “Digital cheating rocks WAEC.” It is very embarrassing as this writer confirmed a few of the infamous websites reflected in the report. Even WAEC invigilators are alleged to be part of the scam. The future of our country is mortgaged if we allow this illegality to continue. If secondary school students carry on leisurely with exam malpractices without being checked, they will disappoint our country when it matters most. By implication, the quality of our manpower in the future will be inferior to those from other nations who are active participants in world economy.
Today, the global economy is knowledge-based. A knowledge economy creates knowledge and it is used by a nation to pursue its domestic and international goals that are relevant to national interests. In a knowledge economy, knowledge is fast replacing physical resources as the driver of economic growth. The interface of the “new economy” with “knowledge economy” has led to a rise in global productivity and growth which has resulted in accelerated investments, wealth creation, low inflation, and elimination of poverty. These characteristics are mostly found in developed and industrialized countries.
For Nigeria to be an active participant and not a spectator in global affairs, it must have an educated and skilled populationthat can create and use knowledge. Nigeria must have an efficient innovation system in firms, research centers, universities, consultancies and other organizations that can draw from the growing stock of global knowledge. They must assimilate and adapt the knowledge to local needs, in order to create relevant new knowledge. This can be achieved when our secondary school students are not intellectually lazy.
Let’s be honest, examination malpractice has been going on for a long time. In 2004, a friend whose wife was the principal of a secondary school in Port Harcourt once told methat some parents tried to induce his wife to assist their wards to pass school certificate examinations. And because she did not accept their illegal offers, they call her all sorts of names. Some parents even say “she will remain poor for life.”
So this writer is not surprised that some parents join forces with their wards to patronize digital examination malpractice markets in Nigeria by providing about ten thousand Naira only to have access to WAEC examination questions and answers. After all we are in a digital world. But the question which comes to mind is: How is Nigeria going to have abundant educated and skilled population if students continue to cheat in their exams? I ask this question because our students must cultivate a culture of “good thinking” so that they can be good products of the society in future. If secondary school students cannot read, think, write and pass WAEC examination on their own steam without cheating, then Nigeria is breeding inferior manpower for the future.
Some secondary school children indulge in examination malpractices in order have mandatory five credits in English and Mathematics required for tertiary level admission. The consequence is that we have a country where majority of Nigeria’s tertiary students graduate with inadequacies in writing, analytical and communication skills expected of them. It is from this group of students that odd men and women who the society will refer to as professors, accountants, engineers, journalists, medical doctors, pharmacists, military generals and other professionals will emerge later. Which type of nation are we building? Nigeria cannot afford to hand over the baton of leadership to cheats who will run the affairs of this country in the future.
One of the poor narrativesof Nigeria’s education sector is that some teachers have been accused of having forged credentials. The situation is so bad that some teachers in primary and secondary schools across the country do not possess the WAEC School Certificate with credits in five subjects including English and Mathematics.This writer still remembers the case of teachers having fake certificates in a few states. Some of these teachers with fake certificates are back in the classrooms teaching. They have been pardoned by their state assemblies.
Nigeria has politicized its educational system. We have equally read in dailies about many Nigerians in high places without genuine certificates. Yet, only a handful are arrested, investigated and convicted while others are busy gallivanting about in the country. With these societal ills, do you expect our secondary school students to be above board? No! Gone are the days when teachers are role models to students. Currently, most teachers have lost their character. It’s very unfortunate.
Our education system has collapsed.For many years in Nigeria, mediocrity has been the standard. The country has deliberately relegated creativity to the background while rascality has been promoted as an acceptable means of governance. If drastic measures are not taken to halt this ugly trend, one would not be wrong to say that Nigeria is sitting on a time bomb which is about to explode. So the Registrar, WAEC must dig deep into the root cause of this crime. And to prevent our future generations from perishing, the education sector needs a complete overhaul urgently.

 
MA Johnson