Cheating our way into poverty
There is a Supreme Court decision in which some students who had sat for the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSSCE) had their results cancelled by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) because the council, amongst other things, believed that the students in question had foreknowledge of the examination questions.
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The Supreme Court overturned the decision of the council mainly on the procedure relied upon by the council to reach those conclusions. But this decision underscores the fact that examination leaks are not recent developments. Everyone (irrespective of age) has a tale or two to tell about such leaks and their impact on their lives.
After my Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), I did what most people did at my time – gave away most of my books, shirts and shorts and all the things that would place a junior below me in a relatively comfortable position.
There was so much excitement in the air. I remember the swell of voices beaming with excitement and delight soon after the invigilator had asked us to stop work and hand over our papers. We looked each other in the face; we were just excited because school was out of the way for the time being.
The excitement had nothing to do with the fact or assurance of us having done a good job (there would be enough time to worry about that). It was all about the fact that we had finished our final examination at the very basic level. The results we knew would take care of itself- after all we had done our best.
The excitement was short-lived. The examination that year was riddled with so many leaks; we heard of them but were too young to be bothered or concerned.
One evening, I was home watching GTV with family when a female presenter announced that the WAEC had decided to cancel some selected papers.
To our chagrin, we were required to go back to school for the second time to prepare for another examination. Having given away books and school uniforms, one can imagine how difficult it was for us.
One would have thought that decades down the line, something concrete would be done to arrest the phenomenon. No! It still prevails.
Examination leaks are hot fireballs which no one is willing to hold on to or quench as well. The emphasis on passing examinations at all cost has led to the quantification and commoditisation of educational goals and standards.
Year in, year out, you find people coming out with spurious rankings. The emphasis is now on the percentage of students who passed their examinations. Passing an examination is an end in itself. But it is obvious that we have not evaluated the cost and impact of these leaks.
Examination leaks are in so many ways an unadulterated cause of our underdevelopment as a nation. And this postulation would sound very distant until we take a good look at the quality of human resources that we have around us.
We are in a global age. The only thing that prevails is a global standard. It is not enough being good in your class. It is not good enough being good in your community or even in the country.
You’ve got to have an eye on the Singaporeans who deliberately train the minds of their young ones to become experts in particular fields and areas. You’ve got to have an eye on the Chinese and the South Koreans.
Education in Ghana has been treated as just another rite of passage.
You need to pass your basic examination to go to the senior high school. And you need to go to senior high school to enter into a tertiary institution. You need to have a tertiary education in order to get married. It is just another social symbol that people boast around with.
But education should be more transformative. It fails when the integrity of the testing systems is compromised. A compromised system leads to compromised individuals and half-baked educated minds.
How on earth did we fold our arms and just watch time take its course with the dumsor situation? How did we get to the point where we purport to train persons in the sciences and mathematics and yet the rate of patent registration locally is incredibly low; signifying an unwillingness or inability of persons to innovate?
Consumerism is the order of the day. Innovation is the forgotten horse. The extent of our awareness as a country is terribly suspect. And it is all because we have and continue to cheat our way into poverty - starting from the educational system.
All is not lost. Let’s fix cheating at the basic level. Let’s fix cheating at the secondary level. Let’s fix cheating at the tertiary level. Then we would not have to be crying over election rigging; foreign exploitation and all the other things we are in a habit of crying about.
Enforcing high standards at an early age makes a world of a difference. And it is the greatest favour we can do for ourselves.
