CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Inside the school hall in a typical Nigeria examination center, young men and women are seated with rest attention as they listen to a middle aged, well built man, clutching folder containing some sheets of papers. He is surrounded by other ladies and gentlemen who apparently are waiting for the man to give the go ahead to start the distribution of examination question papers and answer booklets. He clears his throat and pointing his fingers to nobody in particular as if sounding a warning to a recalcitrant child who refused to heed to his mother’s scolding “if you like go ahead and cheat in this examination misconduct will face twenty one years imprisonment”This is the kind of ceremony that usually precedes examination examinations. Examination officials, invigilators school authorities as the case may be warn the candidates against examination misconduct.

Examination misconduct in Nigeria has attained a frightening proportion. It is sophisticated and institutionalized. Efforts by government administration and state-holders in the education sector to curtail the ugly trend have not yielded any fruit. One of the peremial and most devastating problems militating against the educational system in Nigeria today is examination misconduct.

This phenomenon has been described in Denga and Denga (1998:3) as one of the cardinal forms of educational misconduct. The authors further termed it as an ugly canker and octopus that is rapidly assuming the status of a social, moral and educational epidemic in Nigeria.According to them examination misconduct has become so internalized and legitimized among students that most of them regards it as a normal process of passing examination, without regards to its associated consequences on the nation’s development.