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Lessons from IFM incident
2007-10-04 10:15:26
By Editor
Early this week, a student at the Institute of Finance Management in Dar es Salaam nursed broken bones after jumping from a second floor window in a futile attempt to avoid getting caught, after he was caught sitting a supplementary examination for another student who had previously failed.
Newspaper photos depicted the self-injured student being whisked to hospital after it was discovered that he had broken one of his hands. Sad as it is, the story is stranger than fiction.
On the other hand, the saga manifests the gravity of exam cheating in Tanzania`s institutes of higher learning, which, as the Monday incident had shown, have reached shocking propotions. This is the best way to translate the occurrence, if at all we want to call a spade a spade.
To get a complete picture of the danger now prevalent in academic circles, there is a good number of college by-products, who cannot market themselves even in situations where job vacancies are available, and, if employed by mistake, prove to be a huge burden to their employers due to their academic illiteracy as well as incompetence.
Can we really allow such a situation to take root in our universities? Whom are these fraudulent deadwood going to serve, apart from playing their sure role of dragging the nation backwards?
It is rather shocking that our examination system is so lopsided that a crafty person can enter an examination room and sit the exam on behalf of an incompetent candidate.
How can the administrators of our higher learning institutions allow the situation to deteriorate to such a degree?
A system that creates such an environment must be seen as weak and shouldn’t be allowed to remain so.
The truth remains that there are loopholes in our education system which people know they can use to get certificates and thereafter be entrusted with big responsibilities.
This calls for attention on our system of vetting people before they get employed, otherwise the culprits survive and go on in life, climbing one ladder after another by apple polishing, lying, scheming and trampling on those who are genuinely qualified, thus bringing about job dissatisfaction within organizations.
Such characters fluke and even become leaders at national level. Being fake products, after negotiating their way to very important positions in the society, they continue spreading their cancer by creating other fake products.
Any nation is founded on the quality of its education. At the moment, the authorities are busy building schools and employing teachers on massive scale, but these efforts won`t bring about the desired results if the above mentioned-and condemned-trend is allowed to continue.
The growing tendency of making our society free for all in all matters is going to cost us dearly.
If we want to fight ignorance, then let us do so, otherwise we shall simply be fanning it, sad to say, at higher education level.
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