Call for caution

Private schools proprietors said even though students get issued the LIN upon enrolment in any public or private facility in the state, recent technical challenges created difficulties in retrieving or validating the numbers and thereby made them not readily available to students for WASSCE registration.

According to the proprietors, schools were previously operating on the Ogun State Education Revitalisation Agenda (OGSERA) platform but were recently migrated to the Digital Platform for Education Revitalisation (DIPER). They alleged that the new system has been plagued by glitches, with some students who were earlier registered now unable to locate their details.

A proprietor was reported saying challenges encountered with the online platform through which the LIN is generated obstructed some students from obtaining their number. “Some students whose names were originally registered on the platform can no longer find their names,” he said, further lamenting that the government has directed that SS3 students who transferred from other states and did not have LIN must produce their Junior Secondary 3 certificate in addition to their first, second and third term results in SS1 and SS2 classes in their former school before they could be registered for WASSCE.

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The proprietors argued that meeting the requirements within the limited timeframe is impractical. “We are saying that the government should allow us to register these children because the time they rolled out these policies and the time for implementation is too short …” he added.

The operators urged Governor Dapo Abiodun to direct that the policy be put on hold until the next academic session.

Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Professor Abayomi Arigbabu, defended the policy, saying it was introduced to curb examination malpractice and ensure proper student data management. He explained that the LIN system, introduced about five years ago, was designed to create a comprehensive database of students in both public and private schools across the state.

“Every student schooling in the state is supposed to have the Learner Identification Number. It is given once you are registered in any school in the state. It is not something you should start looking for in SS3,” he said.

The commissioner dismissed allegations that the policy is punitive, accusing some private schools of registering ineligible candidates for WASSCE. “Many of these private schools register all kinds of persons for WASSCE, and most of the candidates registered won’t be the ones sitting for the examination. So, if you cannot produce the LIN, we will know that you have something up your sleeves,” he argued.

Arigbabu acknowledged that there were technical glitches accounting for some genuine cases and assured that such complaints were being addressed. “We are keen on sanitising the entire process. We will look at those with genuine complaints, but we will not compromise or relent on our efforts to block leakages and fight malpractice,” he said.

We totally align with the state government in its stand against exam malpractice, which has become an albatross on the Nigerian education system. Sadly, it is an act perpetrated by students, in many cases with the complicity of parents and school operators; and so, tough policies to tackle the menace are good for the system. In this regard, the government’s initiative is commendable.

But it is also important to consider the interest of students due to sit the 2026 SSCE. The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) caters to the entire sub-region and will not wait for students in a Nigerian state to get sorted out before operationalising its timelines.

This examination is a gateway to their future; so, the state government should strike a balance between fighting malpractice and facilitating their legitimate aspiration.