We Can No Longer Rely on Exams to Evaluate Students

A Professor at the Department of Social Sciences Education, University of Ilorin, Onimisi E. Abdullahi, has tasked stakeholders in the nation’s educational sector to devise a more objective means of assessing learning outcomes rather than reliance on written examinations.

Prof. Abdullahi stated this last Thursday (October 10, 2024) while delivering the 266th Inaugural Lecture of the University, titled “A Psychological Perspective on the Systemic Inconsistencies in the Nigerian Educational System”, at the University Auditorium.

The Inaugural Lecturer explained that the suggestion would discourage cheating and tendencies for cheating that are becoming inherent in almost all students nowadays.

He said that such objective means of evaluation should include practical sessions, stressing that this is necessary as the number of students being expelled from the nation’s university system for examination malpractices is rising over the years.

Prof. Abdullahi, who is an expert in educational psychology, advised the government to encourage indigenous authors to publish textbooks that would cater for local needs, aspirations and peculiarities to be used in our schools rather than “foreign textbooks that come with the tendency to distort our history, and which are foisted on us to brainwash our children through the Western education”. He also suggested that the secondary school system should be structured in ways that can enable the schools to make constructive contributions to the various facets of community life. Prof. Abdullahi, who is a former Provost of the Federal College of Education, Okene, advised that Counselling Centres should be established to assist students in coping with the myriads of stress they had to endure in their studentship journey just like it has been done at the University of Ilorin since 2010.

He added that educators should find effective means of directing youths to such appropriate centres for professional counselling.

Prof. Abdullahi specifically called for the review of the Western education framework that was bequeathed to Nigeria by the colonial power so as to develop a functional curriculum that aligns with our culture, values, and aspirations.

He added that there is a need to have a reformed curriculum that is centred on attitudinal change of all stakeholders, societal view of schooling in teachers, and changes in personality characteristics that are pertinent to classroom learning.

He also remarked that all areas of science and technology curriculum should be restructured to include eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, reduction in child mortality and improved knowledge and strategies for the fight against malaria, HIV, AIDS and other dreadful diseases in our environment to ensure sustainable happy living.

The renowned educationist also suggested that Nigerian indigenous games should be integrated into educational instruments and curriculum in Nigeria. He also stressed the urgent need to formulate a more functional educational policy that is based on African personality, moral values, and ethics. The don also canvassed regular training and re-training of teachers across all levels of education in the country, saying that government should also support schools adequately to equip teachers to find it easy to make use of student-centred approach to teaching.

Prof. Abdullahi also implored private individuals to be motivated for them to invest in education by facilitating the provision of infrastructural facilities that can make learning easier.

He further stressed the urgent need to reform teacher education so as to bring about functional teaching conditions in the nation’s school system.

The inaugural lecture, which was presided over by the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Wahab Olasupo Egbewole, SAN, was attended by a former Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Is’haq Oloyede; the Vice Chancellor of Al-Hikmah University, Prof. Noah Yusuf; the Vice Chancellor of the African School of Economics, Abuja; Prof. Mahfouz Adedimeji; former Vice Chancellors of the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Prof. Musbau Akanji; former Vice Chancellor of Fountain and Summit Universities, Prof. O. B. Oloyede, friends, relation, colleagues, and students as well as mentees of Prof. Abdullahi from far and near.

We Can No Longer Rely on Exams to Evaluate Students — Prof. Abdullahi

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