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International Journal of Scientific World, 6 (1) (2018) 8-13
International Journal of Scientific World
Website: www.sciencepubco.com/index.php/IJSW
doi: 10.14419/ijsw.v6i1.8509
Research paper
Examination malpractices: an indisciplinary act towards a
societal ruin, causes, agents, control and the way forward
Monday S. Adiaha1* and David U. Ocheje 2
1 Directorate of Continuing Education, Federal Capital Territory College of Education, Zuba-Abuja/ Department of Agronomy
(Crop and Soil Science), Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, Cross River University of Technology, Nigeria
2 Department of Educational Foundations, Federal Capital Territory College of Education, Zuba-Abuja, Nigeria
*Corresponding author E-mail: mondaysadiaha@gmail.com
Abstract
Examination Malpractices as an indisciplinary act towards a societal ruin was surveyed. Findings of this study presented examination
malpractices as an act capable of dragging the society into ruin. Results of the statistical analysis were significant (p<0.005), proofing
examination malpractices as an act been perpetrated in schools for the benefit of the parties involved. Different forms, causes and agents
of examination malpractices have been identified, seeking a control guide where these factors can be tackled for the benefit of the Nige-
rian society and the world at large. The mode of life contrary to societal development has been identified as indiscipline with characteris-
tics, which do not conform to the development of the environment. The regular violations of school rules, constant violence been experi-
enced in the country today, turn-down of court orders, broken homes, including loss of respect for Humanity, metamorphoses from indis-
cipline, from one stage/form to the other. The Research finding further revealed that this act is one of the possible reasons for some level
of underdevelopment been experienced in some of the developing countries like Nigeria. Tackling indisciplinary acts like examination
malpractice can help to revive a society’s morals, including her economic status, where development can be sustainable for the benefit of
the present and unborn generations, and to create an ideal society where human dignity and respect for academics as one of the factors
for strong economic development can prevail. Recommendations of this survey include good home training and upbringing, leadership
by example, engagement of an individual in life rewarding activities to exit idleness, including setting of realistic rules guiding the act of
examination malpractice as an act of indiscipline.
Keywords: Examination Malpractice; Societal Ruin; Underdevelopment; Educational Advancement, In disciplinary Act.
1. Introduction
1.1. Background to the study
Over the years, mankind has always sought for approaches to
distinguish between levels of intelligence. One of the approaches
so developed include examination. Examination has been looked
at as an avenue to ascertain the learners’ level of understanding
and how much a subject area has been grasped in a particular
field. Findings of Hornby [1] looks at examination in a view of a
test of the learner’s knowledge in his/her area of study using,
questioning and answering method, research findings of Balogun
[2] further looks at examination as an evaluation process, with the
aim of drawing conclusion on the extent of knowledge a learner
has acquired within a given time frame. Examination can take-on
different forms; oral, written, practical, including the combination
of oral-written, oral-practical and oral –written- practical examina-
tion. A learner can be accessed through examination internally or
externally. Examination malpractice as reported by Adedokun [3]
include misconduct to rules guiding an examination.
Examination malpractice is any action knowingly or unknowingly
perpetuated in school with the aim of distorting the true reflection
and outcome/ aim of examination. These actions may be before,
during or after an examination has taken place. Problems of exam-
ination malpractice have been widely spread, hitting all corners of
academics with its effect being experience in poor managerial skill
and inability to lead/teach subject area of claim mastery. The cur-
rent trend of examination malpractice is alarming, calling for
proper/consistent check on our educational system. A study by
Ruwa [4] looked back into 1914, where he reported 25% of stu-
dents of the University of Maiduguri admitting to have in one
form or the other engaged in examination malpractices. Cases of
examination malpractices have been reported widely in Nigeria’s
academics, pointing at a clear view that whenever examination is
mentioned, its malpractice is the first point been talked about,
becoming an epidemic in the Nigerian educational system. Several
effects of examination malpractices can be seen in our society
today, ranging from poor performance in the workplace to fear for
vigorous/more rewarding academic activities. Learners waste a lot
of time doing unnecessary things even when an examination is
closely approaching, with a heart-full of predetermined intension
to indulge in one form of malpractice before, during or after an
examination, parading fake success, which today is capable and is
gradually dragging the society towards ruin. To combat this trend,
then a prompt and consistent action is needed, this has been the
effort of the Nigerian government to make examination credible
for effective/productive economic growth, this resulted in the
1984 Decree and revised 1999 decrees of examination malpractic-
es, stating jail sentences and fine of N50, 000.00 to N100.000.00
for indulging in examination malpractices. Despite the law, exam-
International Journal of Scientific World
9
ination malpractice has been on the increase, creating doubt in
certificate acceptance among other impacts.
1.2. Statement of the problem
Examination Malpractice (EM) has been identified as an endemic
cause of low quality education with its causes linked to low moral
standard in schools, candidates’ fear of failure, the learner/student
lack of confidence in themselves, inability to understand lessons
been taught due to poor teaching-learning environment, the teach-
ers’ inability to teach effectively/productively including laziness
of the learners. Findings of Ruwa [4] stated that university lectur-
ers are of the opinion that inadequate teaching/learning facility,
including fear of failure by students is among the factors responsi-
ble for the increase in examination malpractice. Findings of Fa-
yombo [5] presented examination malpractice as having both psy-
chological and sociological causes: stating, over dependence on
the paper certificate with some holders being unable to defend
their qualification. Research of Okwilagwe [6] further stated ab-
sence of interest in non-intellectual factors as being one of the
forces driving examination malpractices, presenting a view that
man is made up of intellectual, emotional, affective and psycho-
logical traits and these traits must be catered for by the school.
Agents of examination malpractices have been identified and in-
clude parents/guidance and the society. The mode of life contrary
to societal development is regarded as indiscipline, it involves acts
that do not conform to societal values, norms and nature of the
environment. In the school environment, indiscipline can be said
to be the unwillingness of the learners to pay respect, observe and
obey constituted authority [7].
In the findings of Akindiji [8] adapted from Nwakoby [9] indisci-
pline is looked at as a misbehavior/misconduct of both physical
act and act perpetuated from the mind, presenting indiscipline as
disregard to a given standard of behavior, rules, including regula-
tions in a given social system. Anytime there occurs to be negli-
gence to laid-down norms, culture, traditions, including values of
a given social system, then there is indiscipline involved. Learners
this-days are increasingly portraying behavior that are not con-
formed with rules and regulations in a given school. This is also
one of the possible causes driving the increase of examination
malpractices in our school system. As part of the effort to control
in-disciplinary acts in school, Ozigi and Canlan [10] cited by
Oyetubo and Olaiya [11] presented the following factors as causes
driving the act of indiscipline: emphasis laid on democracy with
right and freedom of the individual; failure of the adult both in the
society and in the school to set standard of good behavior for
young men and women to follow; the failure of many homes to
provide basic and essential moral training in the upbringing of the
children, including the failure of parents to set good examples.
The regular cases of violation of school rules and regulation, con-
stant violence being experienced in our society, including turn-
down of court orders, broken homes, loss of respect for humanity
and other forms of actions capable of dragging the society in ruin
are as a result of in disciplinary act pilled-up over the years.
1.3. Purpose of the study
The primary purpose of this investigation include:
1) Seeking ways examination malpractices can be controlled
by presenting the effect/impact of examination malpractice
as been capable of dragging the society into ruin.
2) To proffer solution and contribute to the existing knowledge
on the causes, agents and control measures for examination
malpractices.
2. Hypotheses
1) There is no significance difference in examination malprac-
tice as a contributory factor to be societal ruin.
2) There is no significance difference in forms and causes of
examination malpractice in school and how it re-
lates/contribute to underdevelopment.
3. Methodology
The study was a descriptive survey design. The population con-
sisted of locals (teachers/students of Secondary School) in Obubra
Local Government Area of Cross River State. A purposive sam-
pling technique was used to select the community while a strati-
fied random sampling technique was used to select a participant.
The questionnaires were drawn on a 2 point likert scale ranging
Agree and Disagree.
Two questionnaires were administered:
i). Effect of EM, dragging the society into ruin and
ii). Forms of EM perpetrated in schools, relating to underdevel-
opment of the country.
4. Administration
The instrument was personally administered to the participants by
the researchers. The community that was administered was visited
twice a week, every Tuesday and Friday for six weeks. One hun-
dred (100) questionnaires administered were returned and used for
this study.
5. Data analysis
Data was collected and analyzed using frequency counts, percent-
ages, mean and t-test to describe the data. All hypotheses were
tested at 0.05 level of significance. The face and content validity
of the instrument were determined by an expert in the field of
Measurement and Evaluation in the Department of Educational
Foundation, FCT College of Education Zuba-Abuja, Nigeria.
,
HYPOTHESIS 1: There is no significant difference in examina-
tion malpractice as a contributory factor to be societal ruin.
The responses of the locals to each item on the effect of EM ques-
tionnaire is presented in (Table 1)
Table 1: Impact/Effect of EM, Dragging the Society towards Ruin
S/N
Factor
Agreed
Disagreed
1.
Poor performance in work place
89.5
10.5
2.
Poor communication and evaluation skills
87.5
12.5
3.
Inadequate/lack of self esteem
92.5
7.5
4.
Inability to evaluate or give sound judg-
ment
85.0
15.0
5.
Inability to teach subject area of claim
mastery/study
100
0
6.
Ineffective leadership
70.5
29.5
7.
Engagement of young generations in the
act of examination malpractice
89.0
11.0
8.
Disregard for academic hard work and
novelty
93.5
6.5
9.
Inability to face future challenges and
academically unproductive
92.0
8.0
10.
Fear for vigorous and more rewarding
academic work
96.0
4.0
Mean score = 89.55 Standard Deviation = 7.54 N = 100.
Analysis of the poor performance in workplace shows that exami-
nation malpractice is capable of resulting in poor performance of
an individual who must have indulged in examination malpractice
before getting an employment, presenting a value of (89.5%)
which stands above the respondent who disagreed, as presented in
(Table 1 and Figure 1/2). Hence, proving the negative ef-
fect/impact of examination malpractices in dragging our society
towards ruin.
There exist a relationship between poor communication and eval-
uation skills and poor performance in a workplace, presenting
values at (89.5 and 87.5) respectively, thereby indicating a view
10
International Journal of Scientific World
that the effect/impact of EM can still be felt long after an individ-
ual leave's school. Similarly, a total of 100% of the respondent
also attributed inability to teach subject area of claimed mas-
tery/study as a result of the individual been a product of EM. (
92%) of the respondents agreed to the view that inability to face
future challenges and been academically unproductive is attributed
to such individual been a product of examination malpractice,
96% of the fear for vigorous and more rewarding academic work
seen today in our society may have emerge out of examination
malpractices. However, 29.5% of the respondent disagreed with a
view that ineffective leadership is not a product of EM, while
70.5% agreed, clearly, pointing to a view that ineffective leader-
ship could be linked to such as individual been academically doll
and may have indulged in EM, hence, suggesting that for an indi-
vidual to function effectively/productively in school and after
school study, he/she should be put into intensive study, including
the use of regular assignment, classroom test and the use of con-
tinuous assessment. This view confirms the research findings of
Akanni and Bankole [12] where their research stated the use of
continuous assignment to combat examination malpractice.
Fig. 1: Impact/Effect of Examination Malpractice on the Society.
Fig. 2: Consequence of Examination Malpractice in Our Society.
HYPOTHESIS 2: There is no significant difference in the forms
of examination malpractices in schools and how it relates to un-
derdevelopment.
Result of the survey in (table 2 and represented in Figure 3) pre-
sented the different forms and causes of examination malpractice,
pointing-out it effect/impact on the Nigerian society. Over-
dependence on paper qualification has been proven as one of the
factors driving the increase in examination malpractice as present-
ed in (table 2) where 93.8% of the respondents agreed that it im-
pact is one the factors driving underdevelopment in the country.
Poor teaching-learning environment has been identified as one of
the contributory factors fueling examination malpractices, with
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
10.5 12.5 7.5 15 0 29.5 11 6.5 8 4
Percentage Impact/Effect
Factors
Agreed
Disagreed
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
12345678910
Consequence of EM in our Society
International Journal of Scientific World
11
94.5% views pointing to it as a part of the factors contributing to
underdevelopment. Lack of confidence by candidates has been
identified as yet another factor causing examination malpractices
and it impact been a contributory factor to underdevelopment.
Inadequate or ineffective supervision of examination was also
identified as a contributory factor driving examination malpractice
with 59.0% of the respondents agreeing, although 41.0% of the
respondent disagreed. Loss of societal values/immorality was
identified as been included among the causes of examination mal-
practices.
Collaborative copying, with swapping of scripts in an exams hall
was further identified as form of examination malpractice with
89.8% of the respondents agreeing that it is a contributory factor
to underdevelopment.
Table 2: Forms/Cause of Examination Malpractice in School and How It Relates to Underdevelopment
S/N
Factor
Agreed
Disagreed
1.
Over dependence on paper qualification, with parading of flashy certificates/degree with high grades without ability to
defend it: does it lead to underdevelopment in the country?
93.8
6.2
2.
Poor teaching-learning environment with inability of the leaners to understand the lesson: does it lead to underdevelopment
in the country?
94.5
5.5
3.
Lack of confidence by the candidate linked to poor learning and practice: does it link to underdevelopment in the country?
89.9
10.1
4.
Inadequate or ineffective supervision of examination: does it lead underdevelopment in the country?
59.0
41.0
5.
Loss of societal values/immorality: does it lead to underdevelopment in the country?
50.3
49.7
6.
Collaborative copying, with swapping of scripts in an examination: does it lead to underdevelopment in the country?
89.8
10.2
7.
Buying or procurement of question/answer papers prior to the examination: does it lead to underdevelopment in the coun-
try?
70.0
30.0
8.
Impersonation: does impersonation lead to underdevelopment in the country?
60.1
39.9
9.
Mass cheating with permission from exams invigilators or monitoring agent: Does it lead to underdevelopment in the
country?
69.3
30.7
10.
Intimidation of timid invigilator for the aim of cheating: does it lead to underdevelopment?
53.9
46.1
Means score = 73.06 Standard Deviation = 16.51 N= 10
Fig. 3: Forms/Causes of Examination Malpractice.
Buying or procurement of question/answer paper has been pointed
out as a form of examination malpractice, with 70% positive re-
sponds, pointing to this act of indiscipline, as one of the contrib-
uting factors leading to underdevelopment in the country. Imper-
sonation, mass cheating including intimidation of timid invigilator
has been identified and confirmed as forms of examination mal-
practice, stating, that they play one role or the other in the down-
ward movement towards societal ruin. This finding agrees with the
research of Ozigi and Canlan [10]; Oyetubo and Olaiya [11],
where their research presented indisciplinary act including exami-
nation malpractices as an act driving the society toward ruin. (Fig-
ure 4) presents the percentage of respondents agreeing that EM is
caused by factors such as over dependent on paper qualification
and exist in forms like mass cheating including Collaborative
copying.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
6.2 5.5 10.1 41 49.7 10.2 30 39.9 30.7 46.1
Percentage Impact/Effect
Factor Agreed
Disagreed
12
International Journal of Scientific World
Fig. 4: How Examination Malpractice Is Caused and Carried Out in Our Society.
Fig. 5: Pictures of Act of Examination Malpractices.
6. Discussion of results
Table 3: T-Test Comparison to Test the Hypothesis
FACTORS
T
(CAL)
T (TABLE
VALUE)
MEAN
S.D
Impact/effect of EM towards
societal ruin
89.55
7.54
6.76
2.26
Forms/causes of EM in
school and it relationship to
underdevelopment
73.06
16.51
df = 9 significant level = 0.05.
The result showed that impact/effect of EM toward societal ruined
was significant (P<0.05), indicating that EM is capable of destroy-
ing the society. Presenting a mean score at 89.55 standard devia-
tion (S.D) of (7.54) and T-cal value of (6.76) which stands above
the tabulated value, proofing this view as valid, thereby confirm-
ing the researcher's findings of vanguard [13]; Ogwuda [14]; ko-
molate and Ajao [15]; Yarson [16]; Idu and Ojedapo [17] where
their research stated the problem of indiscipline, including exami-
nation malpractice been a force dragging the society down to-
wards ruin. These factors identified: Poor performance in work-
place, disregard for academic hard-work and novelty, including
fear for vigorous and more rewarding academic work can be re-
duced, with the aim of creating an ideal environment for learning
alongside catering for the welfare/safety of staffs, this findings
further agree with the research of Gaustard [18] stating staff safety
and enabling learning environment as factors to be kept in mind to
flame-up measures to cut-down in-disciplinary acts especially in
schools.
Statistical analysis presented forms/causes of EM as valid, pre-
senting a mean score of 73.06 and S.D value of (16.51) at T-cal
value, which stands over the tabulated value of (2.26), hence, indi-
cating a view that forms/acts of EM like collaborative copying,
mass cheating, including impersonation as acts capable of driving
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
12345678910
Forms/Causes of EM
International Journal of Scientific World
13
the society towards ruin, thereby, indicating that act of indiscipline
with it causes and forms can be ascertained and control in other to
safe our society, which is moving towards ruin. This agrees with
the submission of Paul [19]; Deaukee [20]; Davis-Johnson [21]
which stated acts of indiscipline like examination malpractice
been able to control by the society with appropriate measures like
positive teacher-learner relationship, clear guide-lines/rules in-
cluding behavior modeling.
7. Conclusion
Based on the findings of this study, it is concluded that:
1) Examination malpractice is an act capable of dragging the
society towards ruin.
2) Poor performance in workplace; disregard for academic
hard-work and novelty including fear for vigorous and more
rewarding academic work has been identified as some of the
impact of examination malpractices.
3) Over dependence on paper qualification, lack of confidence
by the candidate due to poor studies, including loss of socie-
tal values has been identified as causes of examination mal-
practices.
4) Collaborative copying, procurement of question/answer pa-
per, mass cheating including intimidation of timid invigila-
tor has been identified as forms of examination malpractic-
es.
5) Statistical analysis proves the act of indiscipline as valid,
presenting a view that these acts can be control in-other to
safe our drowning society.
8. Recommendation
1) As parts of the effort to control the act of examination mal-
practice's parent/guidances are encouraged to give their
children/wards good home training and upbringing.
2) Modeling behavior and leadership by example is recom-
mended.
3) An individual (child, adolescence, adult) should be engaged
to partake in life rewarding activities to exit idleness instead
of wasting time where he/she was supposed to be studying.
4) Setting of realistic rules guiding the act of examination mal-
practice as part of disciplinary acts in-other to curtail the
menace in our society.
5) In-disciplinary act like examination malpractice should be
regularly monitored, and culprit vigorously dealt with in-
accordance with laid-down rules and regulations guiding the
act.
6) A wholesome approach in management of students’ indisci-
pline should be adopted by school administrators and exam-
ination bodies.
7) As civilization and technology hit all aspects of human en-
deavor, examination malpractices kept getting modernized
with technology, hence, sensitive device is also recom-
mended in tracking students indulging in EM, especially at
the entrance point into the exams' hall and during an exami-
nation hour.
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