Leadership for ethical conduct of Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE) in Nigeria and the challenge of ‘Miracle Examination Centres’

ABSTRACT

The importance placed on passing Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations (SSCE) in Nigeria has led to the emergence of ‘Miracle Examination Centres’ (MECs). MECs are schools where candidates get undeserving excellent SSCE results through institutionally enabled malpractice. This undermines the Nigerian education sector and its leadership. But well-researched empirical evidence on MECs in Nigeria is scarce. Through a reconnaissance technique (recce), we provide new evidence on MECs’ activities, including their nature and patronage, while providing informed remedial pointers that can be harnessed by the education sector leadership. Interviews were conducted with 97 persons, comprising community members, teachers, and school owners across 16 communities in four study sites (Abuja, Anambra, Edo, and Kogi), and data were supported by observations. Elicited data were thematically analysed. Findings show that MECs were more interested in rents (informal and undue fees) by compromising SSCE standards and less interested in academic training. Community members were aware of the activities of MECs and could readily identify or discuss them. We uncovered the adopted processes in facilitating this kind of malpractice. A feasible strategy to address MECs and similar examination fraud syndicates across countries is for the education sector leadership to strategically focus on the demand and supply sides.

KEYWORDS:

• Corruption
• examination malpractice
• Miracle Examination Centres
• WAEC
• NECO
• SSCE

Acknowledgments

This article is an output of the SOAS Anti-Corruption Evidence (ACE) research consortium funded by UK aid from the UK Government. The views presented are those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect the UK Government’s official policies or the views of SOAS-ACE or other consortium partner organisations. We are grateful to all the contact persons that made this study possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethics

This study was approved by the Ethical Review Board of the University of Nigeria with identification reference – NHREC/05/01/2008B-FWA00002458-1RB00002323.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Notes on contributors

Prince Agwu

Prince Agwu is an academic staff member in the Social Work Department, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and Research Fellow at the Health Policy Research Group, University of Nigeria. He holds a PhD in Social Policy and a Commonwealth Alumnus of the University of Dundee, Scotland, UK. He is an Academic Editor for PLoS ONE, and the first African Section Editor of Social Work and Social Sciences Review (SWSSR). His research niche is in social policy, focusing on health systems and policy/programme governance in migration and education. He is the Co-Principal Investigator on the Miracle Examination Centre Project funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), through the Anticorruption Evidence Consortium at the School of Oriental African Studies, London (SOAS-ACE). Prince has published widely in several refereed journals that are policy-focused on health systems, education, and migration.

Charles T. Orjiakor

Charles Tochukwu Orjiakor completed his masters degree in forensic psychology in Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK and also completed a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Nigeria. Within psychology, his research interests include offending behaviours, especially aggression/violence and dysfunctional cognitions. Additionally, he has experience working in the development sector where he has worked with diverse teams in research projects aiming to identify and solve corruption/accountability problems in the Nigerian health and education sectors. Some of the top issues of concern include absenteeism, procurement corruption and informal payments. Other projects Charles has participated in aimed at improving access to health care for the urban poor, and advocacy for cancer patients.

Aloysius Odii

Aloysius Odii holds a PhD in demography and population studies from the University of Nigeria. He is an academic staff member at the Department of Sociology/Anthropology, University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a research associate with the Health Policy Research Group (HPRG). He is a passionate researcher and has participated in many research projects, including the Anti-Corruption Evidence (ACE) Project on corruption in the health and education sectors. His areas of interest are health systems research, migration and sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Chinyere Onalu

Chinyere Onalu holds a PhD in Social Work and is an academic staff member in the Department of Social Work, University of Nigeria. Her research interest is in young adults, focusing on their behavioural dynamics and what help they need. Chinyere is also interested in educational curriculum issues, with particular interest in how these curriculums are designed to address evolving societal issues. She is a research associate on the Miracle Examination Centre Project.

Chidi Nzeadibe

Chidi Nzeadibe (Ph.D) is Professor of Environmental Management & Sustainability, and Head, Department of Geography; Senior Research Fellow at the Resource and Environmental Policy Research Centre, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He has interests in Sustainable Environmental Management, Impact Assessment, Climate Change, vulnerability to flood risk, gender analysis and solid waste management & recycling. He previously served as Associate Dean and Acting Dean of the Faculty of the Social Sciences, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He is the Coordinator of the Waste & Resource Management Research Group (WARMREG), University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Visiting Researcher at the DSI/NRF/CSIR Chair in Waste and Society, University of the Western Cape (UWC), South Africa. Chidi was a member of the SOAS Anti-Corruption Evidence (ACE) research consortium funded by FCDO that investigated the Miracle Examination Centres’ corruption in the education sector in Nigeria.

Pallavi Roy

Pallavi Roy is a Reader (Associate Professor) in Political Economy at the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at SOAS. She is the Co-Director of the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office’s (FCDO) £6 million Anti-Corruption Evidence (ACE) research partnership consortium working primarily in Bangladesh and Nigeria, as well as several other developing countries. She is also the Co-Principal Investigator on an FCDO-funded programme on generating evidence for inclusive growth in Nepal. Pallavi’s research on the political economy of governance and growth, and of late development has been cited widely and her expertise has been called upon by ministries such as the FCDO and organisations such as the International Anti-Corruption Academy in Laxenburg, Austria. She also has extensive work experience with donors such as the FCDO, Agence Française du Développement (AFD) and the World Bank, national ministries and agencies in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Nigeria, and organisations such as Transparency International and the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development.

Obinna Onwujekwe

Obinna Onwujekwe, is a Professor of Health Economics, Systems & Policy in the Department of Health Administration and Management and a Professor of Pharmacoeconomics/Pharmacoepidemiology in the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, both at the University of Nigeria. He is the Director of Research in the University of Nigeria and the Coordinator of the Health Policy Research Group. He is the Director of the Nigerian National Centre on Health Policy and Systems, which is part of the African Health Observatory Platform (AHOP) on Health Systems. He is a member of The African Advisory Committee on Health Research and Development (AACHRD), the Nigerian National Health Research Committee and the COVID-19 Socio-economy working group of the African Scientific Research and Innovation Council of the African Union. He was a Commissioner on the Lancet Nigeria Commission on Investing in Health and the Future of the Nation. He is a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Science. He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Medicine Specialties. His detailed profile is at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Obinna_Onwujekwe

Uzoma Okoye

Uzoma Odera Okoye is a Professor in the Department of Social Work at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and holds a PhD in Social Gerontology. She was a Fulbright Scholar at Boston College, United States of America and a Dick Splane Scholar at University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. She has authored over a hundred journal articles and book chapters on different social issues. Prof Uzoma Okoye has attended many conferences and served as a resource person in many workshops. She has supervised and graduated over forty Masters and twenty PhD students. Her current research interests include: caregiving and social support for older adults, climate change, migration and internal displacement, public health, and gender studies. She is the Principal Investigator of the Miracle Examination Centre Project in Nigeria.