‘No exam fraud in NOUN’

The Director of Calabar Study Centre, National Open University of Nigeria, Dr. Andee Iheme, has said there is no room for examination malpractices by students and sorting of lecturers as a result of the policy operated by the institution.

Iheme said this was made possible because examination questions were not compiled and marked by lecturers in a particular study centre.

As a director, Iheme said he received the code for questions on the impending course to be written, less than 30 minutes before the examination commenced.

He said this at the school’s auditorium in Calabar on Saturday during the matriculation of over 400 new intakes into the study centre.

The director warned the matriculating students against conceiving the idea of cheating during examinations, saying the institution has zero tolerance for that.

He said, “The code for examination questions for a course to be taken is sent to me 30 minutes via text message while students are already seated. I, as a director, do not know the questions, let alone any lecturer. The questions are printed while they (students) are seated for examinations.

“Those who think we operate like the regular universities may have missed the way. There is no room for bribery or sorting of lecturers here. So, I beg you, do not think of cheating. We have zero tolerance for examination malpractices.

“We have caught high ranking military officers, divisional police officers; traditional rulers that have attempted to cheat and they were caught, tried and expelled. It is a terrible thing because there is no shame that is equal to that.”

Iheme said the policy operated by the institution makes it imperative for students to be fully computer literate on graduation, explaining that most of the courses were computer-based.

“We are more computer literate than our counterparts in the conventional system. Virtually everything we do is computer-based. You cannot as a student graduate from our system and not be grounded in computer usage,” he stressed.

Iheme, however, lamented that students intake into the Calabar study centre was still low, adding that there was the need the need to embark on enlightenment to attract more students.