President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday said
public servants and many in the private sectors
who have questionable wealth are celebrated
with alumni recognitions, honourary degrees,
chieftaincy titles and sometimes higher religious
titles.
He said this during the 65th annual council
meeting of the West African Examinations
Council (WAEC) in Abuja.
Buhari, who was represented by Vice President
Yemi Osinbajo, said Nigerians are no longer
concerned about the process of attaining
success because the end justifies the means
for them.
The president also said cheating in examination
and attainment of fake certificates among
Nigerians had become a normal thing because
of collapse of values in the society.
Such collapse in value, he explained, makes it
difficult for policy makers to effect change in
the society.
He said: “Today the attainment of wealth,
power or educational influence is the mark of
success which is not necessarily a bad thing
except we are no longer concerned with the
process of attaining success.
“The end it appears today justifies the means
which explains why cheating in exams and fake
certificates simply do not generate the sort of
outrage that such conduct would have
generated years ago.
“Public servants and many in the private sectors
who have unexplainable wealth are celebrated in
one form or the other, alumni recognitions,
honourary degrees, chieftaincy titles and even
higher religious titles.
“Often, cheating is with the collusion of parents
and teachers. This only reflects the failure of
values in our larger society.
“Educational policy within that milieu of
collapsed value failure is a totally different type
of task when values in society has collapsed.
When values in the society has been upturned,
the role of the policy maker is completely
different from when values are maintained by
and large. ”
The president called for a change in education
curricula to reflect modern teaching methods.
“It is much more important today to emphasise
also how we should teach which will obviously
impact how we should examine, what questions
we should be asking and what we should be
looking for in our students.
“But regarding what we should teach, it is my
respective view, more important now than ever
before to redefine success,” he said.
Earlier in his remarks, Registrar to Council,
WAEC, Dr. Niyi Uwadiae, said examination
malpractices remained a major challenge for the
council.
Uwadiae who said the consequences of
malpractices are grave, called for collaboration
to tackle the scourge.
He also called for the strengthening and
enforcement of existing legislations to combat
malpractices.
Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, in
his remarks, said the federal government had
rolled out programmes to combat some of the
challenges facing education in the country.
“Government has also entered into collaboration
with several international development partners
on these issues, ” he said.
Post a Comment