COE Exchange

The continent of Africa has yet to experience the economic explosion which has enabled many Asian nations to create a large middle class. Aside from South Africa, and to a lesser extent Nigeria, vast areas of Africa are still dependent on agriculture and natural resources for wealth. However, those children who succeed in schools have opportunities to enter government service or business and technical services and thus enter the middle class. It is not surprising that for many students success in school is critically vital to their success in future life.

Alhalji Haruna Danjuma, head of Nigeria’s parent-teacher organization stated bluntly at his organization’s recent conference that cheating on exams was rampant and encouraged by parents. He said “some parents give money to their children to go and negotiate with those who will support them, people who will write their examinations for them, while some people in the education sector will sell the idea to some of our children.”

The issue of cheating on exams and teachers who assist the process is widespread on the African continent. The tremendous shortage of qualified teachers in subjects such as math and science is well known as well as low pay and large class sizes. Mr. Danjuma, speaking as a parent, believes one solution is reducing the emphasis on paper examinations and focusing on creation of a well educated, well paid teacher force which could work more intently with individual students.