He who has never cheated be the first to come forward and say he has never cheated in his life. By the way when did you start cheating or telling lies? Go back to a time when you said your first lie, who taught you to lie? What motivated you to lie?

Examination leakage has dominated our media recently following reports of widespread claims and subsequently official report of the form four examinations leakage in Tanzania. The mathematics examination was called off by the National Examination Council of Tanzania (NECTA). More voices have been raised to nullify all the remaining examinations because the examinations were on the market and thus waters down the authenticity of the examinations.

Surely this is not the first time to happen. It happened years ago, has just happened and will happen tomorrow. Those who understand why it is happening are not touched by the reports at all. They know the hullabaloo will subside and everything would return to normal. Those who don’t understand have called for the Professor Jumanne Maghembe, Minister for Education and Vocational Training and NECTA top officials to step down. They are of the view that because the leakage has tarnished the image of the Ministry, the Council and the country as a whole they should be accountable and step down. I am with them and I guess that is the view of the overwhelming majority. Stepping down is not part of our leadership culture though, so that creates another problem.

Solution

But is stepping down a solution to examination leakage in Tanzania? What are the underlying causes for the leakage? Why examination leakage? Who should we blame for causing the leakage? Is it the minister, the government, NECTA Executive Secretary, NECTA employees, students, parents/guardians, schools, globalization, the modern technology? Who is the culprit? We need to carefully scrutinize each component of the problem before making quick jumps to solutions.

On the streets people are blaming the mushrooming of the private schools and particularly the so called International Schools for compounding the situation. “You see brother, international schools charge high school fees and so to impress the parents and would-be potential clients they collaborate with NECTA officials and buy exams,” a concerned citizen charged.

If we are to buy that, then our education is a commodity for selling. We need marketers and advertisers to offload the goods into the market. In the past education was a service to the community - a tool to empower members of the community - to liberate themselves from ignorance, poverty and diseases. Those who acquired it - mostly free of charge - have turned it to be a flourishing business. They make huge profits out of it at the expense of quality education, the well being of Tanzanians and the country.

In 1993, the late father of the nation Mwl J.K Nyerere visited Uganda on the invitation of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. He made a speech to the Ugandan Parliament which touched on issues, among other things, of tribalism and regionalism at length - basically aiding his political student to build a nation of unity. As a sign of respect he was given an AWARD. Then he talked of his days at Makerere University - College of Education. “Mr President, I must tell you that I enjoyed my days at Makerere University. In our time we knew the purpose of education and for that we wanted to LEARN,” he said.

Contrary to most of us who wanted to pass, Mwalimu wanted to learn. The emphasis on passing examinations as opposed to learning could be one of the underlying causes of examinations leakage. We therefore- deliberately, collectively and decisively need to address that. Back to a time when I completed standard seven and failed to make it to public secondary school reminds me of a bitter experience.

Young as I was and unaware of my parents’ expectation, I was subjected to psychological torture. “Mm! You didn’t pass your examination. You must repeat. We don’t have money to take you to a private school.” I am sure the majority of you went through the same experience. Parents’ pressure and the community expectations influences greatly the way students perceive education today. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying passing exams is a sin, we all want our kids to pass their exams. All I am saying is that the focus should be on learning as opposed to mere passing. Sometimes when I take time to test my child on the same examination he had attempted, I find out that he does not understand what he wrote even though he had got it right. Try your kids and you will understand the point I am raising.

Rumours

We also hear of rumours about schools which give examinations and answers to their pupils with the intention of impressing parents. And while in the pubs you will hear some parents bragging about their children’s performance. “I see my kid is doing very fine at school. In the last examination s/he had A’s in all the examinations. S/he is genius.”

So why on earth should a student want to cheat? My Cobuild dictionary provides that, when someone cheats they do not obey a set of rules which they should be obeying, for example in a game or exam. So cheating is the act of disobeying the set of rules. People cheat to realize or attain the desirable goals. In this case students cheat to PASS Examinations-by passing examinations they impress their parents and/or guardians and they get a ticket to attend higher levels of education and in the end we get nothing of this msomi as a nation. The other time I was reading a newspaper, the author of a feature article on poverty, put blame of the burden of poverty in this country to wasomi. He charged that, the so called wasomi have plunged this country into economic-hurting agreements guided by a notorious philosophy of lose-win situation as opposed to win-win situation, culminating to despicable RICHMOND, IPTL, SONGAS, NBC, BoT-EPA, TICTS deals to mention but a few.

In the opening paragraphs I said examination cheating is not a new phenomenon in Tanzania. A thorough auditing check on the authenticity of papers and examination certificates presented by various officials would bring down the government. Let some one do a quick and unalarmed audit check into this and you would be tightlipped. In this era of technology- On-line courses have produced a lot of ‘wasomi’, and we see people changing titles every now and then. Because a number of “Vihiyo” have found themselves in big offices and loom large as ‘wasomi’, the youngsters are admiring them and go for their advices.

This is the situation we are in today. We think of amassing certificates instead of wanting to learn, being innovative and creative in our undertakings, being original, being enthusiastic and serious about education. Frankly speaking, we are using primitive means to cheat ourselves and thus taking down the grave our economy.

I think there is a need for a new thinking and methods of evaluating our students. Examinations alone cannot be a yard stick for establishing one’s academic ability. Instead a new parameter should be employed to assess the same. We need to run fast like a gazelle least NECTA continues to be a honey pot for cheaters.