Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC) PERSISTENT LEAKAGE OF EXAMINATION EXPOSES SYSTEMIC INSTITUTIONAL AND MORAL FAILURE Issued on: 17th July 2013 Introduction The Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC) has followed carefully the developments with respect to the MSCE leakage and the subsequent arrests of alleged culprits. Both our own internal monitoring visits and media reports reveal the gravity of the problem, and the extent to which the integrity of the examinations and the subsequent results could be put to question. CSEC as an alliance of over 81 organisations in Malawi has also followed the Malawi Examination Board’s (MANEB) statement on the matter. MANEB’s statement insists that examinations cannot be re-administered due to funding challenges and in order to avoid penalising innocent students. With this in mind, CSEC feels duty bound to share its thoughts not only on leakage and/or cheating practices but also on MANEB’s failure to do the obvious and rise to reality to foster examination credibility. Most importantly, CSEC’s views are meant to critique systems, operational processes and institutional capacity with the view to avert future massive leakage, and compel concerned authorities to take appropriate actions on the matter. Key Concerns and Observations We, at CSEC, categorically condemn MANEB for all the incidences of examination leakage or cheating in our education system as such incidences undermine the credibility of examination results. We perceive this as gross failure on the part of MANEB to provide reliable security system for the examinations not only for this year but for the past 10 years. We believe that there is and there could never be an excuse for such failures. We are particularity concerned because all so called reforms in the examinations management systems have failed to effectively contain examination leakages in the past and this year. This seems to suggest that MANEB as an institution is failing to execute its mandate! It further begs the question whether there any genuine intentions to provide an effective reform for improved examination management and administration. We are further concerned because examination leakage appears to be pandemic and systemic in our society emanating from the failure by education system to build confidence among the learners to face examinations without any external assistance. The massive 1

leakages recorded for the last 10 years indicate the extent to which examination leakage is becoming a lucrative enterprise in Malawi in view of the booming private sector interest and the panic for better grades among learners. It also shows erosion of moral consciousness on the part of parents, students, invigilators, police and everyone facilitating leakage and/or cheating. While actors in the leakage might be many, we wish to state that MANEB has the sole responsibility to safeguard the integrity and credibility of examinations as per its institutional mandate.. Some of the problems contributing to leakage are systems supporting examinations and institutional incapacities from different fronts, technical, financial or human. We appreciate the revelation by MANEB that there is a cartel involving police officers, invigilators and private schools owners that is perpetuating leakage and cheating however, we reiterate that failure to curb this is a clear indication of system failure for which MANEB as a custodian of examinations in Malawi should be made accountable. The recent statement by MANEB on MIJ Radio yesterday also reveals the extent to which institutions financed by taxpayers are prepared to compromise our very treasure on flimsy grounds. Firstly, while making a mention that some subjects had leaked, MANEB failed to provide detailed information as to how many subjects are deemed to have been leaked and at what scale. This defeats the whole logic behind the acclaimed investigations that MANEB promised to undertake. CSEC believes that unless these investigations were a face saver, any meaningful investigation should not have been blank on subjects believed to have been leaked, the magnitude of leakage and possible sources of leakage. This, in the view of CSEC could have helped to demystify whether the reported subjects such as Agriculture, Life Skills, Mathematics, English, Biology and Geography were indeed leaked to inform any decision about re-administration of some of the subjects. In the absence of such detail, we fail to appreciate the basis for MANEB’s decision that examinations or indeed selected papers cannot be re-administered. In fact, MANEB is justifying its decision on the basis that they were few students involved in cheating and that the body does not want to penalize “innocent” students. We, at CSEC, wonder how few are the projected students, and whether by marking papers of the deemed innocent students against those who cheated would not constitute unfair assessment. CSEC’s view is that literally speaking MANEB’s claim does not protect the interests of innocent students but rather endorses that it is acceptable in examinations for innocent students to suffer at the hands of cheaters. Most importantly, we are worried with the impression that MANEB is painting about Malawi. This is against the background that Malawi continues to grapple with examination leakage and cheating for the last 10 years however, the 2013 MSCE examinations have recorded the highest reported cases in the history of leakage and cheating considering the scale of available papers on the market and number of arrests made. With this mind and in view of a justifying and compelling basis, MANEB’s decision signals that cheating is normal, and this is dangerous for taming the credibility and integrity of our examinations. Making a decision not to re-administer some subjects even where leakage was massive on the account of funds is not only irresponsible but also a sign of silent acceptable of cheating in examinations. We strongly wonder the basis to proceed with massively cheated or leaked papers knowing very 2

well that their corresponding results will be questionable. What do we intend to achieve as a country? We are aware that not all examination deemed to have leaked are supposed to be readministered depending on the scale of leakage. But whether the current situation necessitates such an action is the borne of contention in view of missing detail in MANEB’s statement and indeed amidst revelations of massive leakage.

Our Call to Citizens, MANEB and Government We, at CSEC, reiterate that examination integrity and credibility are irreplaceable and one of the key factors for quality education. We further believe that we are all failing in our duties to safeguard the core foundation of quality education. While some parents facilitate cheating of their wards, MANEB and Government have failed to develop systems that close the sources of leakage. Most importantly, failure by government to revitalize the education system to build confidence among the students to freely take up examinations is also compounding the problem of examination cheating. CSEC believes that cheating is increasing due to dwindling education standards and as such students are not properly taught to become confident and empowered towards examinations. Earlier reports by MANEB that the police are conniving with Private Schools Directors to leak examination are a wakeup call to Government on regulation and compliance mechanisms by the private schools. Government needs stronger systems to deal with such malpractices deemed to be perpetrated by private schools in the name of producing good results fraudulently as a market strategy for their schools. In view of the preceding, we call upon the following: • That Government should institute a Commission of Inquiry to dig deep into the matter. While perpetual institution of commissions of inquiry undermines the viability of institutions to professionally deal with issues of interest, CSEC is of the view that the 2013 MSCE leakage cannot go unattended. It is either we choose to have failed or that we learn in a systematic way from the failure to improve things in future. • That Government should review MANEB’s decision in consultation with the MANEB Board in view of lack of justifying and compelling evidence on the contrary to support such a decision for not re-administering some of the most leaked papers. • That Government and MANEB Board should carefully examine funding requirements and institutional efficiency of MANEB to progressively mitigate cheating malpractice. Funding inadequacy contributes to untimely payment of allowance for security officers and invigilators which creates a motivation for them to leak papers. It appears, in our view that Government and MANEB have left this unattended to for quite a long time resulting into perpetual leakage and cheating. For this, government should ensure that MANEB is independent and capacitated enough to better manage examinations in Malawi. • That MANEB should review its security plan for examinations and make necessary changes in the interest of safeguard examination integrity and credibility. This is against the background that previously examinations were managed by headmasters

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with low reported cases of cheating, and there should be a possibility of re-blending security strategies. •

There is need to seriously understand the motivation of the leaking of the examinations. Pertinent questions need to be asked by our research in education to identify the motivation, interest and also whether the curriculum approach we have necessitate cheating in the examinations. The gravity of leakage and/or cheating over the recent years put to question the direction that our school curriculum is taking. The questions to be posed are whether the current educational approach (which is exam focused) makes the people more inclined to cheat. For this reason, government should as a matter of urgency mandate institutions such as the Centre for Social Research or Centre for Education Research and Training to investigate the motivation for cheating vis-à-vis the contribution of curriculum to cheating.

As we have said time again, affording to avoid the obvious is choosing not to be accountable to the future generation. Government has the choice to produce a cadre of savage or incompetent graduates or those that are necessary for the development of the country by designing a responsive curriculum and creating appropriate and effective stimulus and systems for learning. Signed:

Benedicto Kondowe Executive Director

Signed

MacBain Mkandawire Board Chairperson

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