Nigeria to Launch Special Court for Exam Cheats — JAMB, WAEC, NECO, NABTEB, and NBAIS

To quickly prosecute exam cheaters and stop malpractice across the country, the Nigerian government has suggested establishing a National Examination Malpractice Court.

This suggestion of the 17-member committee on improving the quality of examinations in Nigeria, which was chaired by Professor Is-haq Oloyede, Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), was confirmed by Minister of Education Dr. Tunji Alausa.

After almost five months of intensive work, the committee that the minister established in January of this year delivered its interim report to him on Friday. The committee’s suggestions, which are intended to improve the quality of exams and reduce examination malpractice in Nigeria, are comprehensive.

In one of the proposals, Oloyede requested that the Federal Ministry of Education work with the National Assembly to pass legislation creating a National Examination Malpractice Court/Tribunal. This would allow for the swift prosecution of exam malpractices and function as a warning to others.

In his statement, Alausa promised the committee members that the government would use all of its resources to combat the threat of exam cheating in Nigeria and that all twelve suggestions would be put into practice.

“Everyone will agree with me today that none of the twelve recommendations that you reeled out will be impossible to implement,” he said. All of them are realistic. The one we will put into effect now, we will do so immediately, and the permanent secretary and I have work to do when we depart.

The committee’s recommendations include the following: “To prevent identity theft and impersonation, all documents, including certificates, registration and result slips, etc., should contain the National Identification Number (NIN), photo, and date of birth.”

“In order to track and have complete information about the examination officials, including examiners, supervisors, and invigilators, all invigilators and supervisors must register through NIN and subscribe to the examination body’s short code, which follows the same pattern as 55019/66019 of JAMB.

Due to the strong opposition to student swapping voiced by the four relevant examination bodies (WAEC, NECO, NABTEB, and NBAIS) regarding security, logistics, and the fact that center details are customarily printed on candidates’ certificates, the practice of swapping invigilators and supervisors—rather than candidates—should begin with the 2025 private SSCE.

“Invigilators and supervisors should always be public officials or instructors with pensionable posts, unless there is no other option.

No school shall be exempt from the statutory standards for exam centers or halls, and each applicant should have 1.8 square meters, or 1.5 by 1.2 meters, of seating.

“Stationary CCTV cameras should be installed in all testing locations for the purposes of monitoring and surveillance. Additionally, each testing location must have a small control room where a CCTV camera is watched for any urgent or immediate alerts.

In order to save money, the four relevant examination bodies will jointly possess central control facilities that they can use for their exams. Exam rooms and centers should be equipped with body camcorders for efficient surveillance.

Every student must create a unique code at the time of admission to Basic School that is connected to their NIN and must be used to identify them throughout their academic career in Nigeria.

The National Assembly and the Federal Ministry of Education should work together to pass legislation creating a National Examination Malpractice Court or Tribunal so that exam malpractices can be promptly prosecuted and discouraged from happening again.

The 1999 Examination Malpractice Act’s non-implementation raises the possibility of either non-implementability or a lack of political will. In order to prevent examination misconduct, the committee suggests that the act be reviewed so that it can be put into effect right away.

“The Computer-Based Examination (CBE) should be used for objective questions in 2025 private tests and in full for school applicants in 2026, instead of waiting until 2027 as originally proposed.

“The fraudulent practice of entering scores in arrears has made the 30% Continuous Assessment component of the Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations a true source of corruption in the examination system.”

Therefore, it is advised that the Continuous Assessment System be reviewed right away by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) and any other FME agency that must have suggested the policy for the National Council on Education’s (NCE) approval.