Examination Malpractice

Nigerian educational system suffers from the examination malpractice for long time. It is said that Nigerian academic certificates are worthless and are no more valuable than the paper they are printed on. Examination malpractice is illegal and can ruin a student’s life.

What Is The Meaning Of Examination Malpractice?

Examination Malpractice is any form of cheating before, during or after examination. There are different forms of examination malpractice:

Plagiarism (stealing or passing ideas, thoughts or words of another person’s own)——- Using any cheat notes—— Copying from pre-prepared answer sheet —— Colluding with other students to get the right answers —— Continuing taking test when time is over. If to generalize, each action that will give one unfair advantage maybe be considered as examination malpractice. A student can commit examination malpractice either inside or outside the examination hall.

What Are The Main Causes Of The Examination Malpractice?

‘He who fail to prepare, gets ready to fail’ One of the leading causes of examination malpractice is failed preparation. There may be few reasons for it. Unspecialized or Unqualified teachers that are not able to explain properly, Lack of time (for example if a student has a part-time job) and laziness. The last one can be a big issue—- students are more eager to do something simpler than studying.
There maybe be a large population of students willing to go to higher institutions. However, there are not enough place for all of them. So students, who are not doing very well, will choose examination malpractice in order to get what they want.

Lack Of Time

The lack of time was mentioned before, but in this case, it’s about subjects. There are complex subjects such as Maths, Chemistry and most especially F. Accounting, that takes significant amounts of time to solve, classify and explain properly. Unfortunately, there are not enough time during the school period, so the curriculum is usually reduced to fit all other subjects. Students may not be able to get or digest some vital informations from shortened version of the subjects. Therefore, they are supposed to study on their own or have no choice than to cheat (taking keep points to the examination hall). The last option is the easiest one for the lazy students.

Curruption

Corruption is one of the biggest problems in modern society, not only African but also other continents. And educational system suffers from it too. There may be corrupt supervisors and invigilators. A lot of students will like to go “the easy way to success with empty head” and bribe them to pass the exam.

Parents

parents always wants the best for their child and education is not excepted. Some parents may want to bribe teachers instead of hiring tutor.

The Consequences Of Examination Malpractice

It can cause different problems in the future. Students that had cheated and weren’t caught would try to go the same easy way in life - they might stay lazy and unproductive. They will grow into adults cheat, copy and paste instead of doing work on their own. They will not be academically or morally valued. Student that try hard and work harder to get prepared well for exams will become less confident and perhaps suffer from apathy. They will see that unprepared students that can easily pass the exams and think “Why do I have to try hard and prepare if anybody can pass?”. Examination malpractice can leads to another area of misconduct such as robbery. It may appear as the easiest and fastest way to earn money which is the major reason for education.

Way Out

There are several possible solutions to examination malpractice.
Higher salary for teachers.
If teachers receives higher salary, then there would be no need of corruptions. Properly and well qualified teachers.

A high skilled teacher can cover a big part of the syllabus, so that the students will be prepared and have enough courage for the examination.
Guidance Counselors

They should be all schools to help students on their studying and best fit career.
A big numbers of supervisors and invigilators. More people will be able to have more control over the students and will notice any cheating, students should be thoroughly searched by their respective gender teachers/supervisors before the exam. This is great option to avoid robbery, ritual and fraudulent activities.

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