Our Rotten System: Education. E e se!

The shock you feel at seeing what you’ve only until now just read or heard about happening. I can't believe this is real, examination malpractice at its core. On that day, the SSS 3 students wrote Geography and I was the invigilator in charge of the four students that offer the course in the whole school. Although I am in my 20s, in my days at the secondary school, you either take Geography as a science student or do Literature as an art student. Imagine my surprise at seeing only four students sitting in the big hall to write the exam. I told myself, you cannot really criticize all the changes you notice.

Anyways, going back to what floored me, one of the students called me before the examination started and asked ‘Aunt, hope you will not disturb us’ and I replied ‘you should not disturb me.' The first real  shock came when the WAEC supervisor told the students as they were about to start that  if they have any problem 'make sure you tell me so that I can call your teacher.' I said to myself, 'you must have heard wrongly'. About 20 minutes into the paper, I noticed that 2 of students were acting suspiciously, so, I got up to check. Lo and behold, they were with phones. The students had created a group chat room on whatsapp and the answers had been sent to it. You should know how hot the phones were. Of course I seized the phones without informing the supervisor.

The first paper was to last for 2 hours. Around 10 mins after the phone incident the supervisor repeated the 'if you have a problem statement and not long after, one of the students said ‘aunty, please call Mr Lagbaja. I told them that they are sick in the head for opening their mouth and making that request. They got a means of calling Mr Lagbaja through a passing teacher. Mr Lagbaja, came and I left the hall because I could not just stomach it.

Another shock came when I went back to the hall  after Mr Lagbaja had left. One of the teachers walked into the hall and after chatting with the Supervisor, asked me why I took the students' phones. I could not just believe this nonsense. He said that as a teacher I should not be an obstacle to the students success. I asked what the duty of an invigilator was and said I cannot just sit there and allow the students to cheat. He told me to give him the phones and I said that if I did and later sees them with the students, I will get it back. He returned the phones and left . Boy, was I furious? Mr Lagbaja was called to assist for the second paper which was objective. He was practically announcing the answers. Lo ba tan!

It's been months now but I am still baffled at our education ethics. Results had been released and the students are now in the universities.  What nation are we building? Is this the  fault  of  the government? What then is  the  reward of hardwork. Ko dara o!