Abstract

The concern for quality and goal-oriented education in Nigeria necessitated this study. This is because a nation is driven by the quality of education provided for her citizens. However, education in Nigeria today can truly be said to be bedeviled by numerous problems one of which is examination malpractice. Thus, the paper discusses issues in examination malpractice, pointing out causes, consequences and the implications for the counselor. It also recommends ways of controlling the scourge.

Introduction/Definition Of Terms

It is true that no nation, can rise above the quality of education provided for her citizens. And since the advent of western education in Nigeria, examinations have being the major instrument used for the evaluation of learners (or students’ achievement). It is a means of assessing the quality and quantity or performance that an individual has accumulated at the end of a teaching process which may spread over a period of seventeen weeks: According to Adekate (1993), examinations are instruments used for the assessment of individuals skills and knowledge-content, both in general and specific areas of studies and over-all academic achievements.

To Liman, as cited by Arifayan (2004), examination in broad perspective is an instrument for testing, assessing, evaluation and accreditation. Thus in schools, examination is a potent instrument for judgment of knowledge or competence. On her own part, Alutu (2005) simply defined examination as a process of measuring how much knowledge a student in an institution of learning has acquired after exposing him/her to definite course of instruction.

Drawing upon all these definitions, examinations can rightly be said to be an indispensable tool in our educational system. In fact, examinations serve various functions. They are used mainly to determine students’ grades and award of certificate to candidates. Usually, certificates are awarded to only those candidates who pass the final examinations at the end of their course. Examination also serves as a means of selecting the best candidates for various purposes. Students are admitted into different institutions of learning on the basis of their scores in the stipulated qualifying examinations. Moreover, promotion of students within the institution/school is based on passing the examinations set for that purpose. In addition, examinations help the lecturers/teachers to evaluate their own work. The application of tests and examinations helps the lecturers/teachers to adjust or change his instructional strategies in the process of teaching and learning in the school system. If the student’s performance in examination is encouraging, then it indicates that the teachers’/lecturers’ methods of teaching are appropriate and efficient.

From the above, it can be seen that success in examination serves as a good motivator for students, teachers, school administrators and employers of labour. On the other hand, failure to perform successfully in examination demoralizes all and sundry, especially students. It is the crave to succeed and avoid frustration and or any embarrassment associated with failure that makes students engage in examination malpractices which has threatened the very foundation of our educational system.

Examination malpractice is construed as irregularities, violation of, or infringements on examinations rules and regulations …… before, during or after the conduct of examination (2005/2006) students handbook of information, Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi.

Alutu (2005) defines examination malpractice as involving a deliberate act of wrong doing, contrary to official examination rules, and is designed to place a candidate at an unfair advantage. Ahmed cited by Arifayan (2004) refers to examination malpractice as any act of wrong doing or neglect that contravenes the rules of acceptable practice before during and after an examination by anybody in any way which is tantamount to malpractice; such act could be carried out by the candidate/student, the examination official(s) (such as an examiner/lecturer, invigilator, supervisor, typist, or secretaries, security personnel, heads of institutions etc) or any other person not associated directly with the examination either individually or with the consent and connivance of either or all of the parties. Such act may be carried out before, during or after the examination with the sole aim of assisting the candidate/student through fraudulent means to obtain grades over and above his/her level of achievement or mastery.

Examination malpractice has graduated from mere stretching of the neck (giraffing) to see what another candidate is writing during exam or consulting unauthorized notes or books inside or outside the examination hall to such sophisticated methods as the use of micro-computer, mobile phones and gun(s) to intimidate those concerned with the administration of examination. For instance, there may be leakage of examination questions (Expo) by any of the parties who are authorized or unauthorized to handle questions and those who may be involved in the processing of examination papers. This prepares the fertile ground for copying during the examinations. This group of students prepares the answer and copies them on pieces of papers with the desire to transcribe the material into the answer sheets. Some write examination information on different parts of their bodies, clothes, walls, blackboard, desks at the venue of the examination and recopy same during their examination. The less crafty ones who cannot procure examinations questions copy the expected answers on pieces of paper and recopy them during examination if luck favours them. There was a case of an engineering student from Calabar polytechnic, caught copying from a foolscap paper which he smuggled into the examination hall. He was almost choked to death as he was swallowing it in an attempt to destroy the evidences (Newswatch July, 1991).

Forms of Examination Malpractice In Nigerian Institutions

A number of different forms are employed by students to carry out this nefarious act. Some of these forms are unimaginable to the extent that it can beat the most vigilant invigilator during the conduct of examination. Some of the known types are:

(i) Micro-chips: This is also known as “chukwuli, reminder, bullet etc”. It is the most common or popular form employed by students to engage in examination malpractice. Micro-chips is simply a method whereby the student copies/summarizes relevant aspects of the recommended textbook by the lecturer in very tiny manner on pieces of papers, table, chair, walls/blackboards of venues of the examination, in sensitive parts of their bodies like breasts, thighs, identity cards etc. in the course of the examination, these micro-chips that may be hidden in their pockets, socks, shoes, bags, calculator, braziers by the female students, etc are used if found relevant.

Closely related to the above is swapping of scripts and smuggling of scripts into examination hall during the course of writing the examination.

(ii) Giraffe: The giraffe is a very tall African mammal with an extremely long neck, legs and a small head. As the name implies, giraffing is the process in which the student stretches his/her neck so as to spy or have a glance at other students’ answers and reproduce same as his/her answer. It is the safest, simplest and most common among students.

(iii) Sorting: This is a system whereby students negotiate with willing lecturers for undeserved scores by rewarding the latter in cash or in kind.

(iv) ECOMOG/ECOWAS/OAU: As the name suggests, it is an alliance between and among school mates who are mutually compatible. This art is executed in three ways: via coded language, using the fingers or in whispers or through a question paper on which inscriptions have been made and then exchanged. The third device is through a clever male student and a weak female sitting close to each other while the female’s paper is written for her by her male counterpart.

(v) Computer: It is a device used to store information in coded language. Unsuspecting lecturers are easily fooled since they may pass such a device for a calculator.

(vi) The Contractor System: It involves three actors. The attendant, who exchanges a question paper with an already prepared answer script, written for the “contactor” student by a “mercenary” student, at a designated point, this contract is successfully executed through the attendant who co-serves as the middle man.

(vii) Super-print system: This represents an umbrella term that embraces any manner of inscriptions on clothes, caps, white handkerchief etc.

(viii) Impersonation: This is a situation whereby a supposedly bright student pr outsider student is hired to write for the student he is impersonating. The system thrives where students do not necessarily have to go in with their identity cards. Even when ID cards are required, it is not a problem. A student can gain entrance into the examination hall with a defaced identity card.

Causes of Examination Malpractice

It is an established fact that examination malpractice which has assumed all alarming proportion is caused by a number of variables/factors. An attempt shall be made to highlight some of these factors, as follows:

1. The Student: In the school set up, examination is administered primarily on students. Students these days are generally indolent and lazy. They are not prepared to work they hardly study and prepare for exams. They believe that money can do everything for them. Rather than spend time and energy studying/reading to pass an examination, students are very busy planning how to cheat. They make a fool of those who genuinely work hard to pass examinations. It no longer seems glorious for a student to swot and seat. The level of performance of students these days appears to be determined by how best they can cheat in examinations.

More importantly, the feeling of inferiority complex to which any student that fails exam is subjected in the school, at home and in the society at large would make the student go to any length to pass examination.

In fact majority of students today prefer disco parties, watching films and other trivialities to any serious academic engagement. Many female students are practising prostitutes. They “sell” their precious womanhood for marks or high grades.

1. Lecturers: It is common knowledge that lecturers help students in their own departments to cheat in examinations. Some take it to the ridiculous extent of showing, or simply “selling” the questions in their own courses to their close friends – often female students. Again, such dubious students with the connivance of equally dubious lecturers, graduate with the class of degree/grade/certificate they do not merit. They often graduate with better grades than their mates that burn the midnight oil.

In summary, it is a known fact that lecturers are being “blocked” either in cash or in kind for high grades. This is as a result of lack of responsibility, dedication and devotion to duty. Some lecturers intentionally delay release of results to allot time for students to come and “settle” them.

1. Strikes/Closure of Institutions: Frequent strike actions and indiscriminate closure of institutions aid examination malpractice. When institutions are closed, semester and course work are condensed and students becomes panicky and start to explore “the best means” to pass their examination.
2. Influence of Foreign Culture: The school is expected to teach the culture of the larger society to its members of which the students are a part. It is also expected to prepare the students to have good character as to relate positively with society; and effectively give students cognitive orientation for development of themselves and the society. Looking at the goals that schools are expected to achieve, one then wonders how examination malpractice in our institutions of learning has polluted the culture the school is school is supposed to uphold vis-à-vis the culture the students are supposed to preserve. The general urge to obtain certificate that one cannot defend has become the order of the day.
3. Society’s expectation/orientation: It is the general notion of the entire populace in Nigeria that once you have gone to school, you must graduate with a good certificate. Anything short of that presents you as a failure or drop out, your honour and prestige are at stake. In this respect, certificate is valuded as a means to an end. Thus, all means, whether straight or crooked, are employed to achieve this objective. Evidence has shown the extent to which students have gone by concealing answers in nylon and hiding them under their shoes, mathematical sets and socks. Students in our institutions of learning are expected to participate in and interact with the society to which they belong; therefore, the orientation is such that the certificate is seen as a prerequisite to acquire wealth and “belong”. It is equally very sad to note that in many examinations, some teachers who are supposed to uphold the society’s norms and the ethics of their profession collude with parents, students and supervisors of various examination bodies or their agencies to perpetrate examination fraud.
4. Socio-Economic Status of Parents: Research findings by Ezewu and Pai Obanya (1982) indicate that academic aspiration of the school child is positively related to the socio-economic status of his parents. This is so because children always imitate their parents and many of them would wish to be like their parents and so aspire to be as highly educated or even better than their parents. Some parents want their children to take up their profession at all cost. Consequently, we see a situation where some parents go to the extent of buying examination papers for their wards and also lavishing invigilators and supervisors with gifts. In some instances, students go the extra mile of hiring fellow students in higher institutions to write examinations for them. Examples of these abound in both national and professional examinations.
5. Admission Requirements: In any institution of learning, there are specific admission policies requirements. For instance, from secondary school to university level, prospective applicants are expected to possess some minimum qualification(s) before being considered for admission. In an attempt to satisfy these requirements, students know that they must possess the relevant subjects for the course of study. Therefore, some of them feel that something must be done to avoid failure in their examination so as to guarantee the achievement of their career goals. The final consequence of this is that many of them resort to cheating during the prescribed examination(s) so as to fulfill their academic ambition especially in key subjects like Mathematics and English Language.
6. Employment Requirements: Qualifications are the major parameters to be used for employment or to fill vacancies in enterprises in the labour market. Therefore, getting the certificate is the most important goal to any prospective applicant. Once the connection is there in addition to obtaining the certificate, the job is secured. The effect of this is that securing a good job in Nigeria depends on a good certificate, hence students who are in pursuit of such good jobs but are weak academically resort to all sorts of means including cheating in examination.
7. General Economic Ailment/level of income: In a nation like ours where there is a high inflationary trend due to the already battered economy, people seize every available opportunity to make both ends meet. People believe that without money, they cannot make it. The officials of examination bodies are no exception. For instance, some of them use their position to make money by selling life examination question papers e.g. leakage of English, Mathematics, Geography etc. of WAEC 2005.

Consequences of Examination Malpractice

The increasing rate of examination malpractice in educational institutions in Nigeria has become a serious national embarrassment which educationists, all stakeholders in the education sector and our leaders can only to ignore at great peril. It should be noted that one of the functions of examinations is to determine students grades and class of result. However, frequent reports of examination malpractice have not helped the credibility of the certificates awarded by Nigerian institution and examination bodies. In the words of Eze and Ezeani (1991), if examination malpractice continues at the present rate, a time will come when certificates will be mere indication of the educational level the bearers have attempted and not attended. Any employer of labour who needs their service will then subject them to an indepth examination in appropriate areas. How prophetic they were! In fact, we have got to the stage that educational institutions and employers of labour have resorted to conducting Post-JAMB/UME as the case may be to determine those candidates/applicants to be admitted or employed in organisations. This has brought shame to Nigeria internally as our certificates are looked at with suspicion and disdain; our products cannot prove their mettle when competing with their counterparts elsewhere.

Two, students/candidates involved in examination malpractice are subject to expulsion, rustication for about a year or two or have their results seized or cancelled. Teachers/lecturers, Heads/staff of schools or examination bodies could be jailed, dismissed or have their appointment terminated. For instance, Prof. Ike, former registrar of WAEC was removed from office because of exam “expo” in the 70’s. Of recent, nineteen (19) students and fifty (50) other students were expelled and rusticated by the Academic Board of Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi (Auchi Polytechnic News Bulletin, Vol 26, 8th October, 2007, No 17). The polytechnic also expelled thirty-four (34) students who forged National Diploma statements of results to gain admission into the Higher National Diploma programme (Auchi polytechnic News Bulletin, Vol 32, 6th June 2007, No 13). In Punch Newspaper of Tuesday, April 26, 2005, it was stated that Bayero University Kano expelled 160 students for being involved in examination malpractices; Lagos State University, Ojo, sent away about 3,000; OAU dismissed over 500 and Rivers State College of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, expelled 69 students. In the editorial column of Daily Champion, Thursday, September 2, 2004, it was noted that yearly on the average, about 700,000 results of candidates are either cancelled or seized by public examination bodies, over 300 principals, teachers, supervisors, invigilators and other examiners are being blacklisted, while several schools are de-recognised as exam centre.

Likewise, the 2007 Annual Exam Ethics stated that the total amount of money lost by parents and government to results cancellation by exam bodies in Nigeria on account of exam malpractice has risen to 107 billion naira in the last five years. The figure stood at 21 billion naira for the year 2006. Also, the total number of post-primary exit examinations result cancelled by public examination bodies (WAEC; NECO, JAMB and NABTEB) stood at 410,000 in 2006. (Daily Sun, Tuesday, October 23, 2007).

Again examination malpractice plants the seeds of fraud in the fertile minds of students in primary and post-primary institutions According to Soleye (1991), examination malpractice exhibits moral decadence in our society. In the same vein, Danga (1991) says examination malpractice is the product of a society that nurtures cheats and mediocre and turns them into celebrities … it is a reflection of the moral decadence of our society. In sum, examination malpractice is a manifestation of the fact that Nigeria is one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

According to Ikoroh (2004), the story is told of a parent whose child in primary school was going for an examination; the parent copied what she presumed would be the answers (perhaps having got the papers ahead of time) to the questions and tucked it into her child’s pocket. When the innocent child was caught while trying to use the piece of paper, he confessed that his mother had put the paper there for him to use at the appropriate time. Many questions arise as to what that child would have leant in terms of how examinations can be passed. The damage to the psyche of such children can be imagined. This is an evidence of moral decadence and general indiscipline, as people now believe that only through fraudulent practices can one make academic achievements. Moreover, students involved in this act, particularly cult members, often resort to intimidation and violence when invigilators/supervisors prevent them from cheating during examination. According to Olugbile (2005), the skull of a lecturer in the department of Business Administration, Lagos State polytechnic, Isolo campus, Mr Hammed Ojodu, was torn open by cultist. He was accused of being insistent in his anti-examination malpractices campaign. Another lecturer at the University of Calabar, had his eye plucked out for preventing cultists from cheating during examinations.

Implications for Counseling/The Counselor

Reasons for counseling services in Nigeria institutions are obvious (NPE: FRN 2004). Some of the issues requiring counseling services in our educational institutions today are: examination malpractice; moral decadence. According to Imogie (2002), the resultant effect of the decline in standard of education is that citizens are no longer getting value for the money spent in education as there is very little teaching and very little or no learning going on in our nations’ institutions. He also re-affirmed the fact that no nation can rise above the quality of its educated citizenry. For meaningful development to take place, counseling must be given priority in all services.

Imogie (2002) further stressed that if education must serve the society, it must produce people who carry more than certificates. It must produce people, normal and exceptional ones, with the right types of knowledge, ability and attitude to put them to work for the good of the society.

Guidance and counseling services is one of the important facilitative services in the quest for quality education. This is because guidance and counseling is a programme that seeks to help individuals to constructs shape and adjust to their interest, abilities, personality traits, motivations, vis-à-vis their environments and life situations. These services are made available by professionally qualified and adequately trained professionals called COUNSELLORS. They are well equipped to render assistance to students to make better adjustment in their personal/social, academic and vocational life pursuits.

In the area of the individual student’s academic pursuit, the counselor should develop effective communication links and networking to guide students towards achieving optimal behaviours during the conduct of examinations (internally and externally as the case may be). Specifically, this can be achieved, among others, through:

1. Delivering individual and group counseling to students generally on the expected behaviours before, during and after examinations. This helps to desensitize the students by reducing fear, anxiety and tension usually associated with examinations.
2. The counselor should assist students to build upon their self confidence so that they will shun any type of examination malpractice
3. The counselor should organize orientation services/talks for all students (old and new) at the beginning of each semester and a week to the commencement of examination. Students Handbook of Information given to new students should include expected examination behaviour
4. The counselor should lecture students on how to study effectively and prepare for examination, the use of the library, formulating and keeping to a personal reading time-table; and
5. The counselor should be in constant touch with the students, discussing with them to find out their views about examination malpractice and how it can be completely curbed

Recommendations

In furtherance of the above functions of the counselor, the following recommendations are made:

1. Our Educational institutions should stop the practice of indiscriminate admission of students without reference to their past moral life. This is very dangerous. Being in possession of an entering qualification is not enough. The institutions need to conduct interview for new students. As the students’ credentials are checked and scrutinized, their behaviour should also be checked and scrutinized. This is because some of these students may have been rusticated or expelled from similar institutions but now they want to gain fresh admission into another institution. Any institution that is unfortunate to have them will definitely regret.
2. Lecturers/teachers should diligently rededicate themselves to their noble profession. This could serve as a potent moral suasion, capable of boosting the confidence of students and dissuading them from engaging in examination malpractice.
3. Students should be helped to cultivate a high reading culture/good study habits instead of contemplating on how to engage in examination malpractice. They should imbibe self-confidence to be achievers in life not depending on others or cheating.
4. Parents should not aid and abet, directly or indirectly, examination malpractice. Rather, they should motivate their children by providing them with the needed school materials, not setting too high standard or ambition for them.
5. To stimulate and facilitate effective learning, institutions should be provided with, at least, minimum teaching/learning facilities. The present high cost of education should be reviewed.
6. There should be massive campaign against examination malpractice. The fight against examination malpractice should be a collective one, involving everybody in the nation if success is to be recorded; and,
7. There has to be the immediate strengthening and enforcement of the Examination Malpractice Act 33 of 1999. This law prescribes penalties ranging from N50,000 to N500,000 and jail terms of three to five years for offenders upon conviction, without option of fine. The truth is that this law has never been put to action as many of those caught have been left unprosecuted.

Conclusion

Examination malpractice, no doubt is an ugly social virus that is speedily creating social, moral and educational epidemic in Nigeria. Hence, this paper has examined the nature, causes, consequences of examination malpractice and the place of counseling services/counselor in eradicating the menace.

The paper has also suggested some practical solutions for controlling or eradicating examination malpractice in our nations’ institutions.