Full Project – EFFECT OF TEACHERS’ PARTICIPATION IN EXAMINATION MALPRACTICE

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

The persistent occurrence of examination malpractices has been a major concern to educationists (Aghenta, 2000; Ige, 2002). Despite the high premium placed on examinations by the National Policy on Education (FGN, 2004), it seems that examination malpractices have not been properly addressed in Nigeria. Observations have shown that there is mass cheating in public examination in Nigeria.

Paul (2012) agreed on the fact that students nowadays are no longer hard working and dedicated towards their academic endeavours. They are characterized by a desire for success and wealth without a corresponding emphasis on legitimate means and avenues to be used positively in achieving success. The desire to pass at all cost is responsible for examination malpractice (Ajibola 2006).

Nigeria’s education system is largely certificate and good grades oriented. Students, parents, school management and others tend to push harder on wards to get the certificate and good grades by all means. As a result, much value and emphasis are placed on certificate instead of knowledge, skills and competence. Many school leavers and dropouts have certificates without knowledge, skills and the right attitude. This is why examination malpractices are increasing day after day for the rush to get paper qualification for jobs they possess or good grades to secure employment.

Itedjere (2006) sees it from the moral tone of the society; that it is a statement of truth that the school, like any other social institution, does not exist in a vacuum, rather it exists within a geopolitical and socio-milieu. Hence, behaviours are expected to conform and reflect the acceptable societal norms and ethos as regards various functional roles and the executions of duties and services.

Examination malpractice can be defined as a deliberate act of wrong doing, contrary to official rules, and is designed to place a candidate at an unfair advantage or disadvantage; it is a careless, illegal or unacceptable behaviour by a candidate in a formal test of his knowledge or ability in a particular subject (Philemon, 2007). It could also be said to be an act of omission or commission which compromises the validity and integrity of any examination (Okwu, 2006). Examination malpractice is counter-practice that is against ethics of examination, it is an act of disrespect to all rules and regulations guiding the good conduct of any examination or any evaluation process.

Examination malpractice is an illegal or unethical behaviour by somebody in the process of testing an examinee’s ability or knowledge by means of question (Ikupa, 1997). Oluyeba and Daramola (1992) remarked that examination malpractice is any irregular behavior exhibited by a candidate or anybody charged with the conduct of examination before, during or after the examination which contravenes the rules and regulations governing the conduct of such examination. Such examination malpractice will include any of the following: examination leakage, impersonation, cheating, collusion, swapping of scripts, smuggling of answer scripts in examination halls, result/certificate forgery, verbal/physical assault on examination administrators.

Similarly, Kibler (1993) defined examination mal-practices as forms of cheating and plagiarism that involve students giving or receiving unauthorized assistance in an academic exercise or receiving credit for work that is not their own. In Nigeria the last two decades have witnessed an alarming rate of crisis of examination misconduct especially in the Secondary and tertiary institutions. It has been widely reported that parents aid and abet examination malpractices directly or indirectly because they even go to the extent of bribing their way through to ensure that their wards get unearned grades. The teachers on their part encourage examination malpractices because they lack the zeal to work and at the end would want to be praised for a job, which was never done thus graduating students who do not actually possess the abilities for which they were examined (Nanna, 1997).

Examination malpractice is not a recent phenomenon or is it peculiar to Nigeria or Africa; but it is a global issue (Ikupa, 1997). However, the alarming rate of its increase in Nigeria calls for novel ways to redress the situation. Examination misconduct has some social and psychological dimensions, which the counselor should address with holistic intervention. Good grades in any examination are gateways to further education and entry into the world of work. But if the value systems of our youths are well constructed, the examination ethics should be adhered to. According to Omoluabi (1993) and Uzoka (1993), our value system has broken down completely and so adults and youths alike act without moral scruples. The general emphasis in our society today is on materialism, bribery, corruption, cultism, sexual promiscuity, fraud, violence, certificate racketeering and a host of other social vices. Aina (1996) succinctly stated that, ethics and integrity are the solution to all the examination ills.

Hence, the social, political and economic structure of this nation is dependent on the promotion of examination ethics; and that hard work is a virtue which once cultivated takes one through life and forms the foundation for an enduring success. Alutu (2002) in a seminar to Secondary School students in Benin City on academic excellence drew students’ attention to the 3p’s —praying, planning and persistent hard work— to academic excellence. The students who were mainly from a Christian community were made to know that praying to God for success without matching it with good study plans and use of time and persistent hard work will not lead them to achieve the goal of academic excellence.

In the WAEC conducted examination in 1991, 30,982 students were involved in examination malpractices while 35,479 were reported in 1992. Shonekan (1996) opines that 1992-1995 a total of 2,818,679 candidates sat for the May/June and November/December Senior School Certificate Examinations and 350,902 candidates’ results were withheld for examination malpractices. Oriola (2003) reports that in 2003 JAMB (Joint Admission and Matriculation Board) 1,099,241 sat for the examination and 116,990 candidates representing 11.5% results were withheld for various examination offences. Jimoh(2009) states that the Federal Ministry of Education blacklisted and derecognized 324 secondary schools across the nation as centers for conducting public examinations from 2007 to 2010.

The phenomenon of examination malpractice seems to be aggravated by the large scale and shameful involvement of dishonest and greedy teachers, school heads, parents and all those who take part in examination administration (Ijaiya, 1998). The prominence assumed by this malady in the school system has become a source of concern to stakeholders in the education industry. Every examination season witnesses new and ingenious methods of cheating. The examination process has become endangered to the extent that certification has almost lost its credibility in the country. Certificates no longer seem to reflect skill and competence. Accusing fingers have been pointed at teachers, school heads, parents, students, examination officials and even security agents as those responsible for examination malpractice in the school system (Jimoh 2009).

1.1 Statement of the Problem

The persistent occurrence of examination malpractices has been a major concern to educationists. Despite the high premium placed on examinations by the National Policy on Education, it seems that examination malpractices have not been properly addressed in Nigeria. Common observations have shown that there is mass cheating in public examinations in the States. Nothing concrete has been done to reduce the problem except the cancellation of results for a particular centre or the withholding of results in certain subjects.

The perception of teachers towards examination malpractices differs from individual to individual and to a large extent from society. However, the problem of examination malpractices has eroded the seriousness of students in studying and learning. It has deprived students from learning instead, they prefer going to examination hall with micro-chips, key points, even textbooks to make things easy in the examination hall. Thus the resultant effect of this illicit act is the production of half-baked graduates and invariably leading to inefficiency. Therefore, this project sought to assess the Effect of teachers’ participation in examination malpractice.

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Full Project – EFFECT OF TEACHERS’ PARTICIPATION IN EXAMINATION MALPRACTICE

Full Project – EFFECT OF TEACHERS’ PARTICIPATION IN EXAMINATION MALPRACTICE

Full Project – EFFECT OF TEACHERS’ PARTICIPATION IN EXAMINATION MALPRACTICE

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