‘Ban mobile phones @ exam halls’

SOME of the nation’s stakeholders in education sector have canvassed for the ban of mobile phones usage in examination halls, in order to curb malpractice, report GLORIA ONIBODE & NNEKA AGBANUSI.

Those who spoke to ITRealms Online on the subject, at the weekend included some students in higher institutions and educationist.

Leading the pack, Head, French Linguistic at the Lagos State College of Education, Ijanikin, Dr. Olu Akeusola, said that the usage of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has boosted education, but warned of the negative effect.

With the rise in technology advancement, he said, students have taken examination malpractices at almost all levels of education to another height.

He noted that some students have used this platform of owning a mobile phone, for instance to perpetuate exam frauds.

“Some of them store answers on their phones and take this into examination halls” he decried, pointing out that some engage somebody who sends answers to them while still in the exam hall through Short Message Service (SMS).

On the way forward, he said, that students should not be allowed to bring their phones into the examination hall.

“No one should be allowed to leave the examination hall as soon as it commences, rather they should use the toilet or whatever they want to do before coming into the exam hall,” he advised.

Dr. Akeusola equally urged telecom operators to co-operate with educational institutions to ensure that a solution is proffered, stressing that any culprit caught should be made to serve punishment and even be taken to court to serve as deterrent to the others.

“The use of mobile phones in examination halls should be viewed as a serious crime,” Akeusola said.

For a 200 level student from Akwa-Ibom State Polytechnic, Ms Ndifreke Assam, “some female students actually hide their phones in under wears and when confronted by the invigilators claim they were only adjusting their sanitary towels to make it firm.”

She also said that securities should also be available at the venue of exams using detectors to search students to ensure they enter the hall without their phones.

Another student, a 300 level student, University of Ilorin, Ajibola Collins, said the problem of malpractice through phone could be attributed to students who find it as an easy way to scale the examination hurdles without stress.

As said by him, it has become so rampant as student do not want to rely on their brains any more as the improvement on technology (GSM) could solve the problem with SMS and most students who indulge in this activities are student who see it as the best possible means to pass at a sitting rather rot away at home due to inability to pass examinations.

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