Corruption Endemic in Nigerian Educational System

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Corruption Endemic in Nigerian Educational System
Introduction
Corruption has affected the Nigeria society with various reports identifying the dismal performance in eradicating the problem, and lack of political goodwill. The educations system is one of the sectors that have been affected, and this has implications for training and quality of human resource in the country. Failure to account for budgetary allocations, inappropriate wealth accumulation among education stakeholders, nepotism, exam cheating, exam manipulation and sexual exploitation of students are factors that affect the education system. Endemic corruption in the Nigerian education sector has produced graduates who are ill-equipped with academic and professorial skills to fit in the workplace and they lack the discipline to act honestly while following the principles of transparency and accountability. This paper highlights the corrupt practices in the Nigerian education system.
Examination malpractice
Academic corruption in the form of examination malpractice started even before the country got its independence from Britain, with exam leakages having increased over time. There was an exam leakage. In every decade since independence, there have been major exam leakages from 1963 and even 2003 (Soap & Memory 118). The challenge of eradicating exam cheating practices is that it has become more sophisticated with stakeholders including examination bodies, parents/ guardians, teachers, examination supervisors and stakeholders been complicit (Onyibe, Uma & Ibin 15). Examination malpractices indicate that corruption has affected all the sectors of the society, and students lack adequate knowledge to tackle the final examinations that determine whether students proceed to institutions of higher learning.
Lack of values
According to Enu (148), the decay of moral values in Nigeria has led to the rise of anti-social vices including the education sector. The quality of education been worsened by the inability of leaders to advance development by promoting positive values in the society, that greed and dishonesty have been accepted as a way of life. Nigerians understand the need of core values to building the nation, but integrating them into the education system has been a challenge values education has been ignored while normalizing unethical practices have been associated with dishonesty among the education stakeholders. Since the value system in the country is weak commitment to advancing a value-based system faces various hurdles since people fail to act for the common good of the education system and the students (Enu 151).
Tolerating corruption
Policymakers and stakeholders in the educations sector have failed to take adequate measures to address corrupt practices in the education sector. This is particularly for the public schools whose education standards are of low quality. Even stakeholders prefer to take their students to private schools where cases of corruption are less frequent (Soap & Memory 121). In the institutions of higher learning, the instructors and schools are more interested in making money and not improving the quality of education. The stakeholders have tolerated corrupt pract...