Adesina Aladeloba, dean of the School of Environmental Studies at Yaba College of Technology, has introduced a N1 million award to encourage students to shun examination malpractice.

Mr Aladeloba said the initiative, ‘War Against Examination Crime’ (WAEC) Award, was designed to prevent examination malpractice by rewarding departments whose students recorded no examination infraction in an academic session.

Speaking on Monday in Lagos, he clarified that the ‘WAEC’ initiative for YABATECH, which was his brainchild, was different from the West African Senior School Certificate Examination organised by the West African Examinations Council.

According to him, the maiden edition of the award was held on June 24, after assessing students’ conduct over two semesters.

Mr Aladeloba further explained that any department whose students were not reported to the School Examination Malpractice Investigation Committee automatically qualified for the award.

“The idea is to prevent examination malpractice rather than focus only on punishment. If there are no cases, the committee will have little or no work to do,” he said.

Mr Aladeloba said the first edition produced two winning departments out of seven in the institution.

He identified the winners as the Departments of Architecture and Transport Planning and Management, which shared the N1 million prize. According to him, the prize money was presented directly to the students’ associations of the winning departments rather than their heads of department.

“The award belongs to the students because they are the ones we want to encourage to maintain integrity during examinations,” he said.

The dean described examination malpractice as a crime with grave consequences for society.

He said professionals who obtained qualifications fraudulently could endanger lives through incompetence in critical fields such as medicine, engineering and construction.

Mr Aladeloba explained that while offenders should face sanctions, educational institutions should place greater emphasis on preventive measures than punitive actions.

He expressed concern over the increasing desperation for paper qualifications in Nigeria, saying it had contributed to the growth of examination malpractice and the so-called ‘miracle centres’.

He urged government agencies to clamp down on operators of miracle centres and prosecute offenders. According to him, eliminating examination malpractice requires a shift from paper qualifications to competence, practical skills and value creation.

He commended the federal government’s growing emphasis on skills acquisition and vocational education, describing it as a step in the right direction.

Mr Aladeloba said the initiative had already inspired healthy competition among students, with departments now encouraging their members to avoid examination misconduct in pursuit of the annual award.

He expressed optimism that other tertiary institutions could adopt the programme as part of efforts to promote academic integrity and reduce examination malpractice in Nigeria.

(NAN)