GOOD GRADES FOR SALE IN NIGERIA

    When Joy was offered admission to study Drama and Theatre Arts at The University of Ibadan, little did she know that she would stay there for only one year instead of four years that it takes  a student to complete the course. She had AI  in English Language, B2 in Mathematics,  B2 in Literature-In-English, A1 in Government and A1 in a Nigerian language, Yoruba in her O'level examinations conducted by West African Examination Council. She also scored 275 out of 400 marks at stake in Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination [UTME] conducted in Nigeria before admission and placement. The funny part of her story was that she couldn't cope with rigorous academic works and assignments in the university after her high grades in secondary school. She was advised to withdraw after a year in school!
   Examination malpractices have become an open business in Nigeria. Students buy O'Level and UTME results with their cash not their academic ability. The 'agents' who 'coordinate'  the business of buying and selling of 'grades' between the students[or many times their parents] and the teachers make fortune in every examination period when they collect fees ranging from 8000 Naira[ 54 Dollars]  or more from the candidates in exchange for five credits in examination!
    'Special hall' is the code name for the room where solutions are either dictated or written on the board for those students who have paid for such services while 'General hall' is for students who  have refused to pay maybe due to financial incapacitation or personal decision not to be involved in examination malpractices.
  Examination results do not portray true academic abilities of students anymore in Nigeria.The reason being that those that pay for examination sharp practice get higher grades than those that write based on their abilities.
   Unemployment is the major reason for examination malpractices. Teachers that engage in this act are frustrated youths who graduates without jobs. Teachers in private schools in this country are graduates of Engineering, Accounting, Mass Communication,Philosophy and could not find jobs where they are supposed to be and ended up in educational sector where there is no regulatory policy; where the owner of the school just take the advantage to pay them megre salaries ranging from 12000 naira [80 Dollars] to 20000 naira [134 Dollars]. These category of teachers will always find succour in examination malpractice. Teachers i\n government-owned schools are not better off as the so called political office holders treat them with kid gloves.

   It is in Nigeria that parents go straight to bribe teachers to help him/her adjust their children's marks because they do not want them to 'waste' their time. The problem is societal in the sense that nobody wants to waste his time in such country where students graduates ten years without any job. The problem we have now has put our future in jeopardy because it is now a situation whereby most graduates of Nigerian universities can't boast of mastery of English Language's lexis and structure as the official mean of communication in the country.