A harrowing episode unfolded in Akure, Ondo State, as thugs—allegedly hired by a parent—brutally assaulted Mr Rotifa, the Vice Principal of Complete Child Development College, Aule, for confiscating a student’s Android phone during the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
According to eyewitness accounts, the SS3 student, Wisdom Elisa, had attempted to use the device to cheat, prompting Mr Rotifa to act decisively in upholding examination rules.
Instead of praise, he was met with vicious reprisal: a mob lay in wait after school hours, waylaid the police van escorting him, extricated him by force and unleashed a savage beating that left him hospitalised.
He remains under medical care at St. John and Mary Hospital, Odokoyi, while staff cower in fear of similar attacks—a chilling testament to how deeply examination malpractice has corroded societal norms.
This violent outburst cannot be viewed in isolation. Examination malpractice in Nigeria has reached alarming proportions: in the 2024 WASSCE alone, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) withheld results for 215,267 candidates—11.92 per cent of the total 1,805,216 who sat the exams—due to various forms of cheating, including unauthorised electronic devices in examination halls.
Although this marks a 4.37 per cent decrease from 2023, it still represents more than one in ten students whose academic futures hang in the balance.
The prevalence of smartphones smuggled into halls has emboldened a subculture of opportunism, wherein desperate parents or complicit school officials go to extraordinary lengths—bribing invigilators, distributing leaked question papers—to guarantee unearned success.
That the parent of a candidate would sanction violence to obstruct legitimate invigilation speaks volumes about this cancerous mindset.
At the heart of this crisis is a moral vacuum: many private institutions have elevated profit over principles, turning the WASSCE period into a lucrative carnival of corruption.
Investigations by education experts reveal that certain schools hire “mercenaries” to orchestrate cheating, compensate supervisors and even falsify attendance registers, all to inflate pass rates and justify exorbitant fees.
While WAEC vows to sanction culpable stakeholders—having arrested over 20 exam officials in 2023 alone—there remains a palpable disconnect between policy pronouncements and enforcement on the ground.
The Ondo State Education Ministry has pledged to bolster security around the remaining WASSCE papers and protect both staff and students.
Yet, as Mr Rotifa’s ordeal demonstrates, the luxury of safety is far too costly for those who place integrity above illicit gain.
This incident transcends the boundaries of school discipline; it is a national security concern. When armed thugs can operate with impunity—threatening to kill school authorities who impede a child’s cheating—it signals the breakdown of law and order at the grassroots.
Such lawlessness erodes community trust in educational institutions and fuels cynicism among youths, who may come to believe that violence and bribery are the only currencies of success.
The state must expedite efforts to track down the perpetrators: the student’s mother, her harrowing threats and the accomplices who lay siege to public order.
Failing to do so would embolden copycats and further debase the sanctity of the examination system.
Statistics underline the urgency: while WAEC’s 2024 pass rate dipped to 72.12 per cent for candidates achieving credits in five subjects including English and Mathematics—a drop of 7.69 per cent from 2023—the percentage of withheld results remains unacceptably high.
If Nigeria aspires to nurture a knowledge-based economy, it must confront the malaise of academic fraud head-on.
Enhanced funding, vigorous oversight and community sensitisation could reportedly cut exam malpractice by up to 70 per cent, according to stakeholders at a policy forum in Abuja.
Yet such recommendations ring hollow unless backed by political will, vigorous prosecution of offenders and a fundamental reorientation of parental attitudes towards education.
In sum, the savagery visited upon Mr Rotifa is symptomatic of a broader societal rot. Parents who weaponise hired thugs to undermine academic rigour betray not only their own children but the nation’s future.
Ondo State’s response—assuring protection for school personnel and pursuing legal redress—must be swift, transparent and unrelenting.
Only then can we begin to reclaim our examination halls from the forces of greed and violence, and restore faith in the integrity that underpins a credible education system.
Additional reporting from Osaigbovo Okungbowa
