CAUSES OF EXAMINATION MALPRACTICE

image source

1. Moral Decadence :
   In the society, there is falling standard of moral virtues among youth. The expected behaviors to conform and reflect the acceptable societal norms and values with regards to various functional roles and execution of duties and services are lacking. Okafor, 1990 blamed the society for examination malpractice as he stated that >In a country where dishonesty has been enshrined by the adult sector as an idol of worship, children here learn to steal with impunity<. Hence, examinations in all shades and forms has become the order of the day among our students at all levels of the educational arrangement.
   Therefore, the entire segments of the country should be blamed for examination malpractice because “when one finger touches oil, it affects the others”. The entire subsystem of the society needs restructuring, reconstruction, rejuvenation and rehabilitation in order to instil moral discipline in every member of the Nigeria society

2. Materialism :
   Examination malpractice can also be attributed to the value system of Nigerians. Nigerians are in the habit of rush to get rich quickly. The economic and social affairs of the nation are so organized to promote cut throat capitalism, commercialism and intense exhibition of wealth. Nigerians have formed the habit of wealth acquisition!. Money has become the most important indicator for status symbol. Most Nigerians believe that money is everything and they begin money race which I term “rat race” to acquire it all means. There is acute neglect of hard work, proficiency, honesty, patriotism, knowledge and skills possession and flagrant disregard for law and order, value for paper qualifications and not ability to display intellectual prowess, acute disrespect for academics and teachers by politicians and industrialist who have nothing to show for their ill gotten wealth. No wonder some academics bribe their ways to get promoted instead of contributing to the growth and development of the society through research findings and publication of articles in reputable journals. Privileged people also use their positions to seek for political appointment for unqualified Candidates because of returns and also fronting people for contract, industrialist using substandard materials to produce consumable items in order to maximize profit (fake drugs and food). All these have become the order of the day and the school as a micro-society has to promote examination malpractice in the educational system. Examinations is the product of a society that nurtures cheats and mediocre and turn them into celebrities.

3. Government Insincerity to Educational needs :
   Africa is a continent where in most cases the mediocre rules while the most highly educated, the skilled and the best trained go into salary employment, the mediocre or the college drop outs or soldiers take over the political machine which gives direction to the whole society and determine the level of its scientific and technological utilization and advancement. Nigerian government cherishes educational policies and programs formulation and promulgation on paper alone. The implementation and sustainability of such policies and programs are neglected and disregarded. These policies and programs suffers chromic under funding and lack of proper attention. In fact, they are used as political campaign and not for educational advancement. The entire primary, secondary and tertiary institutions in the country both federal and state owned, lack adequate facilities and infrastructure for proper teaching and learning, inadequate qualified teachers, poor supervision and monitoring and the likes. The society appears not to see examination as playing a vital role in the educational and economy future of the child and so should not be seriously conducted to ensure its validity and reliability.

4. School Proliferation :
   The approval given for the establishment of private schools by the government to compliment government’s effort in the provision of educational needs for Nigerians has also aided significantly examination malpractice. Private schools are unprecedented and uncontrollably established without due consideration for basic requirements. The modus-operandi is financial gain not quality. These schools are approved without adequate facilities, infrastructures, and qualified personnel. The proprietors and proprietresses of these schools connive with agents of examination malpractice in order to gain cheap popularity in the committee of schools to attract prospective customers. Schools are expected to be established by corporate bodies as Private Liability Companies with approved recapitalization not by individuals who are hungry and naïve in educational industry

5. Attitude of government agencies :
   The attitude of government agencies in the conduct of examination is questionable. Government agencies vested with the responsibility of ensuring the proper conduct of examination contribute to the perpetration of malpractice in schools. These agencies are in the group of ministry of education officials, WAEC officials, supervisors and invigilators as well as the law enforcement agents. They aid and abet while at the same time pretend to e against examination malpractice.

6. Parents and Guardians Participation :
   Many parents and guardians lobby for examination live questions for their children. It is their belief that their children must not suffer the way they suffered before achieving success. Instead if monitoring, caring, guiding, and controlling their children in order to acquire qualitative education, they run after acquisition of wealth to be used for the purchase of live questions or buy the agent over to create room for perpetration of examination malpractice. Many children and wards are being forced to take careers that are not within their abilities and capabilities. As such they adopt negative way to acquire success through examination malpractice. Several families have broken-up without rendering the affection, love, integrity, and stability for proper upbringing of their children and wards. The children are often left uncared for and unsupervised. Thus lack of parental care for social, moral, spiritual, economic and educational provision culminate into all forms of deviant behaviors including malpractice.

7. Inflated School Fees :
   Education is now very expensive to acquire and ignorance is not beneficial to people. The awareness of the relevance of education to the existence and survival of man in the society is now very high. Everybody has developed interest in educational advancement. Both the working class and young children have discovered the significance of paper qualification to improve on their statuses. Education has become extremely expensive nowadays, the tuition fees is now very high most especially in private schools and state institutions example of which happen in Ondo state where the Governor elected in person of SAN. Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu woke up in the middle of the night and increase Akugba Akoko University Akure from #30, 000 worth to bumptious huge of #200,000 and some other institutions to mention but a few..
   Student Union representatives from different institutions soliciting for the reversal of the hike in school fee

Textbook and other incidental have risen to alarming level. These have made consequences of failure to be enormous and therefore students and even parents go all out to secure success at all cost.