Worried by the increasing spate of examination malpractice, which is mainly caused by the leakage and exposure of question papers, the Bauchi State Government has taken steps to curb the menace.
The State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir, recently gave approval for the procurement of Kord printing and Polar cutting machines to be used by the relevant authorities in printing the examination materials.
The disclosure was made by the State Commissioner for Education, Dr. Jamila Dahiru, during a news conference held in her office on Thursday.
The Commissioner opined that the new development would go a long way in ensuring effective service delivery, as it concerns the effective conduct of examinations in the entire state.
Jamila Dahiru stressed that “With the purchase of the machines, there is going to be swift conduct of examinations as the state would be producing its own papers, exam questions, answer sheets, attendant sheets and everything that is printable at the heart of the Ministry of Education.”
According to her, “Now, there is going to be total control of the examinations. There won’t be anything like the leaking of the exam questions or any other forms of examination malpractice associated with examinations.”
She added that, “Before now, we used to give it out as a contract for someone to print for us, sometimes outside the state and it cost a lot of money and now there is going to be savings from the conduct of these examinations.*
“It also upgraded the examination directorate with skills on how to operate because, apart from purchasing the machine, we also provided training for the staff of the directorate and now they are the ones operating the machines,” the Commissioner added.
“The staff at the Examination Directorate are so excited about this because the machines would also lessen their job hardship. For instance, these machines would enable them to print hundreds, if not thousands, of papers within one hour,” she said.
The Commissioner explained that prior to the purchase of the machines if students were paying N1,500 for the Basic Education Certification Examination (BECE), they would now only pay N1,000 this year.
She also said that, apart from improving quality and service delivery, the state government is also reducing the hardship on the citizens when it comes to education service delivery.
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