Abstract Show/Hide This examine considers the remote reasons for examination negligence in the Nigerian education system with a view to suggest innovative ways of fighting the problem. Three research ideas were developed to guide the analysis. Using the multistage stratified sample technique, 2 hundred students were selected for the study from 20 second schools in Akwa Ibom State.
An Examination Malpractice Questionnaire (EMQUE) was used intended for data collection. The three study hypotheses were tested statistically using the Chihuahua square record technique.
The results suggest that poor study patterns, paucity of educational facilities, and inability of schools to protect prescribed syllabuses are significant remote reasons behind examination malpractice in the country. Based on these findings, methods of dealing with the nuisance are proffered and guidance implications are suggested. Intro The issue of evaluation malpractice is actually a national urgent situation. Before the advent of western type education, traditional Nigerian education was based generally on experience and practice.
Its setting of teaching was straightforward as know-how was given to orally and through functional tests. Learners then just had to commit to memory, find out by marque, or through observation (Ibia, 2006). Mainly because traditional Nigerian education placed little or no focus on certification, college students had the right view of education, finding it as a means to an end not an end in itself. Besides, the Nigerian culture in that case frowned at dishonesty and would not be reluctant to sanction offenders (Agogo, 2006).
According to Ejiogu (2001), basic moral decadence and the excessive premium added to achievement and certificates by simply Nigerians features in recent times spawned examination fraud. The general overdependence on educational certificates being a measure of a person’s knowledge and competence has resulted in a mad rush by simply most people pertaining to educational accreditation (Sofola, 2004). In a wager to acquire this kind of certificates, many have resorted to unethical means”foremost between which are examination malpractices”just to get the records at all cost.
Certainly, the persistent occurrence of examination malpractice in Nigeria has spawned heinous concerns such as: 1 ) Lack of trustworthiness of academic records acquired in Nigeria by international community. 2 . Suffering standard of education in the area. Onyechere (2004) asserted that unless we could stop evaluation malpractice, the conventional of education in Nigeria will always fall. several. The problem of turning out into the contemporary society half-baked”if not unbaked”graduates whom are nearly good for nothing and efficient illiterates. some.
Inability to secure competitive and challenging jobs which need practical test of skills and abilities. 5. The existing correlation among examination malpractice and corruption in public offices. As noted by Thomas Derry from the West Africa Examinations Authorities (WAEC) and quoted inside the Examinations Values Project (EEP) survey (2004) report, pupils who rob their ways to higher offices through examination malpractice may not find it difficult to embark on corrupt methods when they are applied. 6. Finally, examination negligence has financial implications.
Relating to EEP (2003) survey, Nigeria seems to lose more than one billion dollars naira every year to examination malpractice. As a result examination malpractice could equally be seen while an economic criminal offenses. Mention-worthy at this juncture is the fact that Nigerians have not been sleeping because the wake on this mischief in the mid 1970s. It is upon recorded history that the initially serious circumstance of assessment malpractice in independent Nigeria was the leakage in 1977 of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) question paper for the West Photography equipment School Examination (Onyechere, 1996).
The outcry by WAEC in the awaken of this incidence led to the setting up of any tribunal by the Federal government of Nigeria to check into the mass leakage and suggest feasible measure to forestall upcoming occurrence. The tribunal advised severe punitive measures. The us government followed this kind of up by promulgating Level No . twenty of 1984 and later, Level No . thirty-three of 99 in which serious punishments against perpetrators of examination malpractice were obviously enshrined.
Further more measures that have been taken in recent times to get rid of examination malpractice include that taken by the Obasanjo Supervision which inlayed in the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) policy document a focus on of forty percent reduction in exam malpractice annually, the existing guidelines on exam malpractice, Degree No . thirty-three of the 1999 Constitution typically in force”though not forced, and the push by the National Ministry of Education to introduce the study of ethics in the school curricula with a view to forestalling assessment malpractice.
It is a truism that even though very much has been completed, it is either grossly inadequate or unimpressive at curbing the risk as we day-in-day-out see examination malpractices have newer, dynamic and attractive forms especially with the advances in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) coupled with the general falling criteria of societal norms. Also, it is true that examination malpractice would not include attained its present native to the island state however for the fact which the major risk holders in education are in the front aiding and abetting the crime.
Orhungur (2003) decried the general judgment which tends to indict the scholars and exonerate the professors and other assessment agents. Citing a sensitive report by Usman, this individual maintained that if the staff, that is, most who have to do with examinations”examiners, typists, custodians, staff of exam bodies, ink jet printers, transporters, and security agents”put their house as a way, students probably would not have access to assessment materials before examinations. Umar (2003) indicted head experts and principals as the biggest perpetrators of examination negligence in the country.
This individual asserted that headmasters in connivance with the teachers trigger primary institution pupils in examination negligence during common entrance examinations by giving answers to the students so that they would record high number of moves in their universities. In the case of extra school principals, Umar (2003) stated undoubtedly that they are the worst perpetrators of the crime as they, in a bid to offer the names of their schools acknowledged and recognized, manipulate and aid the crime.
In the same vein, Ike (2004) of the EEP held that principals have hot to the extent of building in to the National Examinations Council (NECO) and the Western African Assessments Council (WAEC) registration service fees, an exam malpractice fee variously known as cooperation charges, understanding service fees, examination welfare fees, and miscellaneous costs with the sole aim of bribing supervisors and invigilators and whoever dispatched them so they really might ‘cooperate’ during tests.
Another band of master-minders that have rather considered centre level in recent times happen to be operators of personal study companies also known as extramural classes. These types of study organisations are veritable fronts pertaining to examination scams operated by organized ligue who charge outrageously thousands of dollars15143 for exams. Funnily enough, students are, more often than not, offering because ultimately it pays off very well (Thisday, 2004). The final group and this is a strong power behind the perpetration of examination malpractice is the father and mother. Many parents would not want their children to repeat virtually any class no matter their level of performance.
Thus, they pressure school specialists to give their children automatic campaign even when that they fail all their examinations. Mom and dad are also in the forefront of hiring mercenaries to write examinations for their wards. They as a result collude with principals to issue fake but good examination leads to their children. Searching beyond the contribution of education stakeholders to evaluation crimes, various other important causes of examination negligence revolve around the scholars and their frame of mind towards all their studies while influenced by the general socio-economic situation in the country.
In recent times, college students prepare”if at all they do”lackadaisically for exams. The reason for this lacklustre attitude as opined by Jones Derry of WAEC is that the youths have prioritized entertainment and delight at the expense of their ebooks (myspacefm. com, 2004). Furthermore, Anger (2004) pointed out that the high fees associated with especially the Senior School Qualification Examination (SSCE) makes malpractice unavoidable while poor college students cannot afford to repeat a given examination and would in the first instance do anything to pass it at all cost.
A comprehensive submission by Anyiin (1998) identified the fundamental reasons behind examination malpractice to include: 1 . Lack of required facilities intended for teaching/learning 2 . Non-coverage of prescribed syllabuses due to their extensiveness and the basic non-chalant frame of mind of educators towards educating. 3. Commercial actions by teachers. four. Mass promo of college students in interior examinations. your five. The general false impression of good efficiency by a few principals and the society as a way of improving the status of social rating in the principals and their schools.. Defective or not enough proper government of tests. 7. Imposition of school subject matter on individuals by father and mother. 8. Poverty and greed on the part of the teachers who have constitute the bulk of invigilators and examiners. on the lookout for. Constant embrace examination costs, among others. Affirmation of the Issue in the fight against examination negligence, it appears that no-one is exonerated. As revealed in the preceding section, education stakeholders, the scholars, as well as the national economy may rightly be apportioned blames for the preponderance of this menace.
In sum, these types of variables tend to operate interdependently such that there is a cumulative influence, with 1 variable buttressing the others. This might be seen in the simple fact that the poor economic situation in the country has forced most poor parents to resort to underhanded means to ensure that their wards may pass their examinations at 1 sitting. Consequently , this research investigates remote causes of evaluation malpractice in Nigeria with a view to proffering effective techniques for curbing the menace.
