CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

One of the objectives of education in Nigeria is to prepare the young ones to face future challenges and develop them to meet the nation’s manpower requirements. The quality of an education system is very important and crucial to the economic development and social stability of any country. It leads to the acquisition of the necessary skills and knowledge that are needed for national development. One of the major indicators of the quality of education is the national public examinations. The central purpose of national public examinations is to enhance transparency, effectiveness, and efficiency in making decisions about people, which may have tremendous implications on their lives. Examinations are generally used to monitor learning and are the most common measure of student learning achievement. Anderson Ball and Murphy (1975) define an examination as any series of questions or exercises or other means of measuring the skills, knowledge, intelligence, capacities or aptitudes of an individual. Public examinations are legally fortified instruments of the states by Acts of Parliament. They are meant to enhance accountability to the taxpayers by educators, and therefore levels of performance are good indicators of how well or badly an education system is functioning. It is fundamental that examination results should reflect the true effort of the students and teachers. It is equally important that the selection and placement decisions made on the basis of examination results are based on a water-tight examination system, and thus the results reflect the true picture of the abilities of examinees.

The universal sine quo non (the necessary and sufficient) conditions for good examinations, i.e., validity and reliability get violated, and when irregularities are discovered, the states incurs horrendous expenses for repeat examinations. The credibility of an education system and its examinations is put in jeopardy whenever the laid down rules and regulations are not adhered to. The regulations are intended to provide an environment of fair play, equal opportunity and validity of the assessment.

Examination malpractice is any wrong doing before, during or after any examination. Although one may not be able to rule out examination malpractice in the past, the current trend is alarming and calls for proper management in order to rid the school system of its consequences. Whereas in the past, students tended to hide the acts, now they advertise them with positive blatancy. The things that others thought right to draw a veil across, the modern biographer reveals with all the gusto of a showman. Ruwa (1997) traced back examination malpractice to 1914. He further reported that in the University of Maiduguri, about 25% of the students interviewed admitted to have engaged in one form of examination malpractice or another. There are several factors that lure candidates into cheating in examinations. Among the most common ones include, stiff competition, poor preparation by both, candidates and teachers, poor invigilation and administration, pressure to pass examination and pass with high grades, as well as inadequate facilities for examinations. While there are many reasons that could lead to examination malpractices, focus can also be turned on the learning environment and the facilities available for implementation of curriculum. It is argued that when curriculum is delivered in non-conducive environment, the learning objectives can hardly be achieved (Ndalichako, 2002), yet the examinations are set on the basis of the learning outcomes as stipulated in the curriculum. According to Ohuche (2000), the school principals and administrators contribute to students’ negative attitude towards cheating in examination because some of the school principals and administrators direct staff to fraudulently assist students during examinations, since their promotion sometimes depends on the percentage of students that excel in examinations.

Examination malpractice as defined by West African Examination Council (WAEC) (2003) is any irregular behavior or act exhibited by candidates or anybody charged with the responsibility of conducting examination in or outside the examination hall, before, during or after such examination with the aim of taking undue advantage. Many of these irregularities or misconducts surround examination and it came to an alarming rate in the last three decades. However, Examination Malpractice Act 33 of 1999 revised the above decree but now stipulates punishment ranging from a fine of N50, 000.00 to N100, 000.00 and imprisonment for a term of 3-4 years with or without option of fine. This new development is due to the inability of the appropriate authorities to enforce the old Decree 20 of 1985. Despite all these laws, examination malpractice has been on the increase and this may be due to non-implementation of the laws. Reasons for it being the low moral standard in schools, candidates’ fear of failure, lack of confidence in themselves, inadequate preparation, laziness and ‘419’ syndrome that have eaten deep into the life of the society. Pratt (1981) stated that students are likely to cheat when they are not prepared for examinations. Ruwa (1997) as well reported that university lecturers are of the opinion that inadequate teaching and learning facilities, poor conditions of service of teacher’s fear of failure by students and admission of unqualified candidates into universities are responsible for examination malpractices.

Dipo (2007), described the problem of examination malpractice as the manifestation of fundamental flaw in the Nigerian philosophy of education. Dipo opposed the undue emphasis on university education. In fact examination malpractice in Nigeria has attained a frightening proportion and has become institutionalized. The Perpetrators of examination malpractices constantly develop new methods that are equally sophisticated in perpetrating the fraud. In order to further explain the sophistication of examination malpractices in Nigeria, JAMB’s public relations officer confirmed in 2007, that two candidates were caught during the 16 May 6, 2007 University Matriculation Examinations (UME) having received text messages on their phones and the text messages received were seen to contain information relevant to the examination that was in progress. Such problems led to the resolve by the Nigerian Universities to conduct post-UME examinations to further screen the candidates before admission since they doubt the validity of the UME scores of the prospective students. Aina (1991) and Aliyu (1991), agreed in their various submissions that the desire to pass at all cost is responsible for examination malpractices. School management and parents tend to push hard on wards to get their certificates and good grades by all means in order to secure employment or admission into the best higher institution.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Although the examination boards world over have laid down rules on examinations, students still cheat in their examinations. The students who cheat get marks that they do not deserve. The efficiency of the country's educational system is reduced, because cheating distorts competition, diminishes the student's incentive to study, and leads to inaccurate evaluation of the student's abilities. To design appropriate deterrence mechanisms, more information about the phenomenon of cheating, especially why and how students cheat, is needed. Research in these areas has mainly looked into frequencies and type of cheating. This is the situation in Nigeria. There is need to look into cheating in an integrated manner, which brings to bare, perception and attitude towards cheating.

Examination malpractice is a general problem that is disturbing the Nigerian education sector and it requires a quick remedy.  Education malpractice happens in almost all the educational levels in the Nigeria but the main level we’re looking at here is the tertiary institutions.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The main objective of this study is to determine some innovative strategies for curbing examination malpractice in Nigeria’s public examinations.  The specified objectives that will guide this study are:

To discover the parent, school and environment factors that influence examination malpractice

To find out the reasons students engage in examination malpractice

To find out if there is any existing measure to curb examination malpractice

To proffer possible solution that will help put an end to education malpractice in Nigeria.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The following research questions will guide and help the researcher to achieve the specified objectives above.

What are the factors that influence examination malpractice in Nigeria schools

What reasons that makes tertiary institution students engage in examination malpractice

Is the any existing measure or policy put in place to curb examination malpractice?

What possible solution can be implemented to help put an end to examination malpractice?

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This findings will expose the teacher, parents, ministries of education and other stakeholder involve in making and formulating educational policy in Nigeria to different ideas, methods that students uses to engage in different examination malpractice, also the findings in this study will be a starting point of reference to other researcher that will embark on the same topic research. All the school administrative in the tertiary levels would be made to realize and nip examination malpractices in the bud. The findings of the study also to an extent will reveal some of the secrets methods of examination malpractices. The study also will let the students that engage in the practice know the negative effects and the possible punishment available for the offenders

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This study is suppose or defined to cover the entire tertiary institution students in Nigeria but due to limited time to conduct the research, only the students of Lagos State University was used as samples.

DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The major problem faced during this research is time, the researcher has limited time to complete the research and also insufficient fund to finance the project also to visit more one school

DEFINITION OF TERMS

Factors: a circumstance, fact, or influence that contributes to a result

Influence: the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behaviour of someone or something, or the effect itself

Increase: become or make greater in size, amount, or degree.

Education Malpractice: Examination malpractice is any wrong doing before, during or after any examination.

Tertiary Institution: Tertiary education, also referred to as third stage, third level, and postsecondary education