The Federal Government of Nigeria has proposed the establishment of a National Examination Malpractice Court/Tribunal to ensure the prompt prosecution of examination fraud and serve as a strong deterrent against cheating.

This announcement was made by the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, while receiving a report from a 17-member committee tasked with improving the quality of examinations in Abuja.

The committee submitted a comprehensive 12-point report aimed at tackling various aspects of examination malpractice and improving the quality of the examination system.

Dr. Alausa affirmed the recommendations and assured that all would be fully implemented.

“Let me assure all the committee members that you have done so much work here, and all the recommendations you have given us as a government, we will implement every single one of them. 

“All the 12 recommendations that you reeled out, everyone will agree with me today that none of them will be impossible to implement. They are all practicable things. Those that will be implemented now, we will do that right away,” he said

Background 

The Federal Government inaugurated a committee to drive reforms on improving the integrity and quality of Nigeria’s examination system.

Chaired by the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Ishaq Oloyede, the committee was tasked with standardizing examination practices, addressing malpractice, and ensuring fairness in assessments.

The committee was inaugurated in January and spent five months reviewing issues related to the integrity and quality of examinations across Nigeria.

This recommendation is part of broader reforms targeting impersonation, corruption in Continuous Assessment, poor surveillance, and inconsistent examination standards

Measures against impersonation 

The committee also recommended that all candidates’ examination documents, including certificates, registration forms, and result slips, carry the National Identification Number (NIN), photographs, and date of birth to curb identity theft and impersonation.

“Documents, including certificates, registration and result slips, should contain National Identification Number (NIN), photograph and date of birth of candidates, to guard against identity theft and impersonation.” 

The committee also recommended that all invigilators and supervisors register using their NIN and subscribe to the examination body’s short code to enable digital tracking and full monitoring of examination officials

“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 to track and have full information about the examination officials, including examiners, supervisors, and invigilators. 

“Swapping of Invigilators and Supervisors 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). 

“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,” the committee stated.

More insights 

Among the 12-point recommendations, the committee proposed several other measures to enhance the integrity of examinations, including:

Equipping all examination halls and centres with stationary CCTV cameras for surveillance and monitoring purposes.

Establishing a mini control room in every examination centre where CCTV footage is monitored for immediate alerts.

Joint ownership of central control facilities by examination bodies to save costs.

Deployment of body camcorders to examination halls and centres for effective monitoring.

Generating a unique code linked to NIN at the point of entry into basic school, which must be identified with the pupil throughout their educational journey in Nigeria.

Reviewing the 1999 Examination Malpractice Act to make it immediately implementable.

Reviewing the Continuous Assessment System due to fraudulent processes in inputting scores.