Renowned educationist Prof. Stephen Adei has stated that the growing culture of examination malpractices mirrors the wider moral decline in society.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show during a discussion on the Hotline Documentary ‘Dark World of BECE’, Prof. Adei remarked, “What is happening is a reflection of the moral degradation or degeneration in our society.”
He linked the trend of malpractice in schools to examples of corruption and indiscipline in national life.
“When you see politicians openly bribing their way, giving GH₵200, 300 in the open to everybody else. When we see galamsey, people say that ‘so long as we get money, even if we poison the whole nation, we don’t care’. Corruption in the public sector, the decadence in the homes – because it’s parents who are sponsoring this,” he explained.
According to him, malpractice takes different forms at the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
“They are impersonation, mobile phone use, collusion among invigilators, supervisors, and teachers collaborating with candidates to facilitate cheating, leaking of examination materials, etc.,” he said.
Prof Adei said that the root of the problem is the pressure in society to succeed by any means necessary.
“There is a lot of pressure to perform, and irrespective of how you do it. So people are now having a lot of mansions they cannot explain, cars their income doesn’t support, and that goes down into the school to say that once you achieve, irrespective of how, society will recognise you. Then there is a very big problem which the World Bank in 2016 called schooling without learning,” he noted.
He expressed concern about the state of public education, where children complete primary school without basic literacy.
“Our primary schools in the public sector – practically the children go through school totally illiterate. While if you go to a place like Togo, by the second year in primary school, every child is literate. And if it is not addressed, these people will therefore go through and have a way of getting a certificate anyway. Because of that, most of the children have very poor study habits,” he said.
Prof Adei shared an example of how malpractice has been normalised in some communities.
“I know of one village where it’s the norm that every student pays 60 cedis. And I asked why 60 cedis. Apparently, there are six people involved: the police, the headmaster, the invigilator, and something. There are about six of them. So each one of them is to get 10 cedis from the students,” he revealed.
He admitted that inadequate preparation on the part of candidates also contributes, but said that the behaviour of exam officials makes matters worse.
“When their supervisors are themselves corrupt and this corruption, bribery, and collusion among examination officials is so rampant…,” he said.
For him, the bigger issue is a society that is losing its sense of honesty and hard work.
“The bottom line is a society losing its values and vanishing integrity because success is all-important, irrespective of how you get it, and you don’t have to sweat for it. At this moment, our political office is for the highest bidder. So why not BECE and WAEC?” he asked.