EXAMINATION MALPRACTICE, THE COMMON ENEMY

 EXAMINATION MALPRACTICE, THE COMMON ENEMY

 By Augustine Bamie Anthony, Manager, Education radio, MBSSE

The quality of a nation's manpower development (Human Capital Development) is in direct proportion to the quality of its educational system. A country with shaky and porous examination system will have very poor manpower. (Human Capital Development).

The Educational system of a country becomes worthless when the element of malpractice is injected in to the process of assessment. This is because examination and education are largely inseparable.

Examinations are conducted in order to measure competence or achievement in a given field of endeavour.

What malpractice does is to compromise the validity, reliability and integrity of any assessment or evaluation system, to render it meaningless and not worthy of counting upon.

Its calamity is not just the havoc it wrecks on the  educational system, but the gradual introduction of youths into the practice of fraud. 

With the passage of time, academic standards will go low and suddenly, lack of confidence in the educational system is what becomes of it.

If you can read and understand this piece, you are counted lucky. Therefore, it is now your responsibility to join hands with the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, to bring back the self-esteem  Mama Salone enjoyed during her days of being nicknamed the Athens of West Africa. Your counterpart who is unable to read and understand this piece  reserves huge respect for you because of the respect and value he/she has for education. That one thing that separates you from him/her must be preserved, protected and maintained at all times and with all levels of seriousness. Education is not cheap, it should not be bought as a mere commodity in the shop or market. 

It is our responsibility to let people EARN it and not BUY it. This is what separates us from them.

You can start the process of protection by saying NO to examination malpractice in Sierra Leone.

 Let's together put Sierra Leone at the top of the academic league table again.