ARMSTRONG ALLAHMAGANI, Bauchi –
No fewer than 15,000 cases of examination malpractice were recorded during the 2021 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). in Bauchi State.
The Commissioner of Education, Bauchi State, Aliyu Tilde, disclosed this to journalists at a press conference on Wednesday.
He vowed that the state government will punish the top officers and some school administrators over the cases.
He said that 52,000 students sat for this year’s BECE with 45,000 of them from public schools, noting that out of this were 15,000 cases of examination malpractice in the essay part.
Tilde said: “I have video evidence of the exam malpractice in my possession. We are not going to punish the students but certainly we will punish the top officers. And will not allow them to conduct subsequent exams. That is the least we can do and will do that.”
He said that a placement test for the willing students has become necessary because “only about one-third of students admitted through Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) report to schools.
“They prefer day and private schools. Having learnt the hard way for two years, we have no option but to go the way we used 21 years ago to admit students into the Special Schools during the Mu’azu era. That method of admission has been yielding the desired results for two decades now,” he said.
The Commissioner added that the exam started since Monday 8th November and would end Sunday 15th November 2021 for only the indigenes of the State and is holding in 23 centres, adding that the test would make them eligible for admission into JSS1, JSS2 l, SS1 and SS2 of boarding schools.
He said: “No child will be admitted into boarding secondary school unless he is willing and found to be worth the extra investment of government in building the future of the State. No admission into SS1 Merit Schools through BECE. All BECE admissions this year will be into Day Schools, which those that are admitted into Merit Schools can turn down.
“We are also admitting students into SS2 to fill in the vacancies that we have. In order to get quality students that graduate in SS3, the State Executive Council in 2020 permitted the Ministry to reintroduce Junior Secondary School classes in the Merit Schools as well. This will allow for the proper grooming of the child as we have been doing in the Special Schools.”
Tilde regretted that the Treasury Single Account of the ministry was truncated two days after the Governor Bala Mohammed dissolved the cabinet in July.
“That tells me what will happen when I leave the office. We must change the leadership of the ministry if we must make a change. Within two days when I left the office when the cabinet was dissolved, I heard some people went and withdrew money in a sack and were sharing cash.
“Don’t be surprised when you hear of some changes in the ministry. We must change things,” he vowed.
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