Examination malpractice in the Nigerian educational system is widely discussed as a cankerworm that poses a great threat to authenticity of educational qualifications. It is a major challenge to examination bodies, the government  of   Nigeria,   schools,    administrators   and parents. Examination is the measurement of proficiency in knowledge and skills, either in oral or written forms, and evaluating the adequacy of these properties possessed by candidate. This is the pivot around which the whole  system  of  education  evolves  (Akpan,  2011; Ajibola, 2011). Examination malpractice on the other hand is defined by WAEC (2003) as any irregular behaviour exhibited by candidates or anybody charged with the responsibility of conducting examination in or outside the examination hall, before, during, or after such examination. It refers to the general irregularities, violation of or infringements on examinations rules and regulations before, during or after the conduct of examination (Ivor, 2010). Examination malpractice in its technical term is an act that contravenes the rules and regulations of a particular examination body set at a particular period of time. Not only that, it is immoral and illegal which also undermines the creditability of the education system (The Ghanaian Times, 2011). Many of these irregular behaviour or misconducts surround examinations and it came to an alarming rate in the last three decades.

Various rules and regulations and corresponding sanctions for various malpractices are normally enlisted by various examination bodies, but hardened and daring candidates try to find innovative ways to outwit authorities (Animasahun, 2013). Examination malpractice has grown from a mere stretching of the neck (giraffing) to see what another candidates is writing during examination or consulting unauthorized notes or books inside or outside the examination hall to such sophisticated method as the use of micro-computer, mobile phones and gun to intimidate those concerned with the administration of the examination (Ivor, 2010). The various forms or styles of examination malpractice also include: stealing, impersonation, disorderliness, cheating, conspiracy and aiding forgery of result slip, giraffe, laptop, machinery, micro-chips, smuggling answer scripts into examinations venues and many others (Akpan, 2011; Olanipekun, 2003; Onyechere, 2008). It is saddening that examination bodies, government functionaries, school authorities, invigilators, parents and students all participate in the iniquitous examination malpractices (Saxe, 2012).

The hue and cry about examination malpractices which take place at all level of the Nigerian educational system is nothing but a reflection of the corrupt society. The Nigerian society is that which celebrates mediocrity and views cheating as being smart. The society does not want to know how an individual achieves success but the important thing is the success. In the actual fact, examination malpractice is a catalyst to the corruption in the society. The politicians employ rigging at elections and enjoy enviable political offices; and so the students cheat from primary to tertiary institutions to move from one level of education to another. All sorts of misconducts take place in and around examination venues in order to achieve success (Ivor, 2010). There is an array of literature on the factors responsible for examination malpractice in Nigeria. They are: students’ lack of adequate preparation, poor school facilities, poor sitting arrangement, and socio-economic factors (Omotosho, 2012; Adekale, 2005; Ijaiya, 2008). Other factors   identified   are   certificates   syndrome,   political undertone, proliferation of private schools, poor invigilation procedure, and supervisory role of school administrators.  To make it worse, it is not only students that are involved, parents, teachers, school heads, examination officials all collude with students to perpetrate this misconduct (Ijaiya 2004). The collusion between one and more of these agents make it more difficult to combat. Even the penalties stipulated in Act 33 of 1999 ranging from cancellation of result to 21 years jail term have failed to achieve any significant shift from the cheating culture (Olanipekun, 2011). According to Berliner (2009), examination ethics project is currently leading a war against examination malpractice. However, the continuous engagement of students in examination malpractices especially during the West African Examination Council (WAEC) and National Examination Council (NECO) give indication that such efforts have proved ineffective.

This study therefore examines students’ factors, teachers’ factors, parental factors, government’s factors and societal factors as correlates of examination mal-practices in Nigeria.

Students’ factor

The most important factor responsible for examination malpractice is students’ personal factor culminating in the desire by the candidate to pass at all cost; and the root cause lays in their lack of confidence and fear of failure or getting low marks, as well as being ill-prepared for the examination. Today, the spirit of dogged attention to study by students in order to pass their examinations on their own without engaging in any form of sharp practices has been thrown to the dogs. There is that notion among students of today that nobody can actually pass his/her examination without some external assistance or what they call “ECOMOG” (Adekale, 2013). 

The anxiety to get a certificate presentation for a job, in most countries, leads to many candidates trying to acquire it by all forms or means, positively or negatively (Ajibola, 2011). Adekale (2009) and Omotosho (2007) identified laziness of students and inadequate preparation for examination as one of the root causes of examination malpractices. Others include: poor preparation for examination, low morality, and poor school facilities as factors of examination malpractices. Inadequate guidance and counseling, truancy, absenteeism and non-chalant attitude are other issues associated with this ill-preparedness for examinations. While some candidates intentionally get indulged in the malpractices, others see themselves in it through ignorance, carelessness or forgetfulness in applying regulations or due to peer pressure (Animasahun, 2013).  According to Ikura (2012), these factors could be categorized into three groups. These include: Psychological factors: stress and anxiety to meet demands of  various  subjects; creating tremor of failure, or scoring low grades force some candidates to fall for the menace. Another is environmental factor: inadequate coverage of syllabus coupled with close sitting nature of candidates at examinations could entice candidates to engage in examination malpractice.  The third one is intelligent factor: candidates are of different academic strength or intelligent quotient (IQ) level; failure to recognize this can make weaker students to compare themselves with naturally gifted ones and not wanting extra hard work to match the brilliant ones, the academic weak ones may get themselves involved in examination malpractice.

Teachers’ factor

The role of teachers in accomplishing learning is to guide and direct learning to enable the students to achieve the set goals of education. But it is unfortunate that most teachers, apart from carrying out their assigned duty of teaching, indulge in teaching students how to cheat in examination. According to Agbo (2008) among forces behind examination malpractices is the teacher related. Most often laxity to duty results in anxiety created by syllabus. The author said that some teachers are incompetent and so do not give the students the right requirement for examination (Ikura, 2010). Some teachers who are assigned to supervise examination connive with the students to cheat due to the level of poverty. Some teachers often demand for money from the students doing examination; some may even collect a meager amount of N200 to N500 to allow students cheat. Ezezogor, (2008) concluded that students’ involvement in examination malpractice is due to teachers’ encouragement. According to them, teachers and principals aid students in buying question papers of the examination to be done. For instance, in some secondary schools there is what is popularly known as ‘cooperative’ where every student who registers for certain examinations are made to pay. This is to enable teachers, principals and supervisors help them throughout the period of examination. The finding of examination malpractice is in consonance with the opinion of Denga and Denga (2008) who affirmed that teachers get involved in examination malpractice dictating answer to students in examination hall in a bid to boast that the school has the highest distinctions and credit passes. This situation is common in Private schools. Generex and Mcleed (2005) found that permissive teachers’ attitude and low teacher vigilance tend to increase cheating which affect students’ performance. The quality of teachers in an educational service determines to a very large extent the quality and standard of the educational system. Without good and efficient teachers, the school system would find it extremely difficult to assist the society in realizing its developments goals as no nation can rise above the quality of teachers.  It is also  true  that  well  motivated teachers tend to be more efficient than their poorly motivated counterparts (Whitey, 2012). Ajibola (2011) and Animasahun (2013) reveal that inadequacy of trained teachers, insufficient teaching facilities in schools, inadequacy of teaching equipment and poor remuneration are factors influencing teachers to develop non-chalant attitude towards examinations and actively participate in examination malpractices or encourage it. Some of them go to the extent of collecting money from students in exchange for examination questions or papers.  Teachers’ commitment is severely affected by their level of job satisfaction. Teachers are most dissatisfied by their work-load, school facilities and services, professional development and reward system. To make both ends meet therefore, they participate in examination mal-practices through which more money accrues to their pockets.

Parental factor

Parents also play a very important role in students’ behaviour and academic performance in school. Most often, some parents fail in their duties to provide necessary materials that will enable their children to learn and when the children are not performing up to expectation, the parents turn around to pressurize the students, blame the teachers or resort to fraudulent means to help the students pass examination. Corro-borating this view, Denga and Denga (2008) affirmed that some rich parents tend to dangle money before teachers to assist their children to pass internal examination. Some parents also go to the extent of buying life question papers for their children thereby giving the children the impression that the end justifies the means. In a society where emphasis is placed on individual success, parents see nothing wrong in assisting their children to perpetrate the act of cheating as long as they succeed in the examination. Okpan (2006) affirmed that parents believed that their children cannot do well in both internal and external examinations so they are ready to go extra miles including hiring people to write examination for their children as well as bribing teachers and examinees to assist their children to succeed in examination. This is quite true when parents and guardians are seen hovering around examination premises looking for who will assist their children. Ikura (2012) and Whitey and Associate (2012) asserted that children are most likely to cheat when their parent press them to succeed. The authors maintained that such parental pressure goes with children’s rate of aspiration which invariably triggers them to cheat to achieve the desired goal particularly when previous examination results are poor.

Buttressing the above assertion, Esu (2004) posited that one of the causes of examination malpractices is non-chalant attitude and permissiveness of many parents. Failure to provide children with the necessary guidance and negative role modeling by parents are factors that cause children to cheat in examinations. The involvement of parents in examination malpractice is a reflection of the general collapse of virtues in the large society. Okpan (2006) maintained that parents have abdicated their traditional responsibilities of developing their children character, instilling hard work and enforcing their integrity.

According to Emmanuel (2013), examination mal-practice is traceable to parents. They pay for mercenaries to write examination on behalf of their children. Some go to bribe teachers or buy live examination papers for their children. This of course has contributed in no small way to the menace of this terrible monster. Ijaiya (2008) found socio-economic factors to be a stronger cause of examination malpractice whereby some highly influential people use their privileged position to influence the authority concerned to assist their wards to pass examinations. In addition, parents are too ambitious to get their children admitted in tertiary institutions and are ready to pay any amount of money to the officials of these agencies. This is so because it is becoming increasingly difficult to secure admission to tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Apart from scoring high in the qualifying Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination, prospective candidates into tertiary institutions must have five credits at one sitting or two sittings. All these make success at public examinations conducted by WAEC and NECO a desperate venture for candidates.

Government factor

The government of the day in Nigeria has also been proved to take indirect active part in examination mal-practices. The government of any nation is responsible for proper education of the citizens by providing necessary fund for all government educational agencies but Nigeria government has neglected her own duties of making Nigeria education standard, and the sector is not properly funded (Abdulkareem, 2003).  Also, the bodies that would see to the process of examination are not independent and empowered to have its team of investigators and prosecutors. Agbo (2008) affirmed that there is an old saying that “justice delayed is justice denied”. Government and its agencies are handling the cases of examination malpractices with kid gloves and the law is seriously recognizing sacred cows. Culprits caught cheating in the examination halls are not made to face the music, hence, the incidence of examination malpractices continue to increase (Maduabum, 2009).  Lack of equipment and teaching facilities in schools are indicators that the commitment of Nigerian government to fund education has dwindled considerably. UNESCO has recommended that 26% of the national budget of a country must be devoted to education (Ivor, 2010).  But in Nigeria, less than 10% has remained the annual budget for education every year.  Hence, inappropriate funding has been responsible for over-congestion in classes, poor school facilities, shortage of qualified teachers, poor remuneration of teachers etc. culminating in students’ desperation to pass examinations at all cost in spite of all inadequacies. According to Farrant (2012), the education sector is grossly underfunded. The inadequate funding of the public school system is the cause of other problems that have undermined quality in the sector. The menace of corruption in the country has also been imbibed by the examination bodies. Corrupt officials and supervisors of WAEC and NECO have allowed themselves to be bought with money and so neglected their responsibilities and permit examination malpractices.

Societal factor

The future of any nation is largely a function of the children who are the leaders of tomorrow and the quality of education they receive. Regrettably, successive governments have neglected the welfare and education of Nigerian children. The decadence in the society is perhaps the result of this neglect. The Nigerian society as it stands today seems to be founded on faulty/fragile education, political, economic, physical and social environment that cannot produce a better tomorrow. The society is bedeviled with social and economic ills such as corruption, nepotism, “godfatherism”, cultism etc. Corruption has posed a serious threat to private and public morality in Nigeria. According to Agboola (2007) “the nature of the scenario could be likened to the average Nigerian child being born to dishonest parents, taught all through his life by dishonest teachers and grows up to live in an environment that has accepted dishonest practices as a way of life”. Farrant (2012) opined that the dishonesty in academic activities in schools is a reflection of the much broader erosion of ethical behaviour that has become commonplace in a society that tends to support self-centeredness and over concern for others. There is no doubt that the social vices bedeviling the society have permeated the entire segments of the education sector. The society’s involvement in examination malpractice is a reflection of the syndrome to make quick money without hard work. The society is in an era of “settlement”. The settlement culture seems to have eaten deep into the fabrics of the society to the extent that its use to aid examination malpractice is just a tip of the society (Ijaiya, 2004). The financial and other rewards accruing to participants of examination malpractice are enormous and unimaginable. Parents and guardians are ready to give encouragement and pay costs because they desperately want their children and wards to acquire certificates.

The process whereby exaltation of the end generates a de-institutionalization of the means to the end occurs in many societies where the two components of the social structure are not highly integrated. Contemporary Nigerian society appears to lay emphasis on success goals without equivalent emphasis on institutional means of attaining success. The response is the general decadence that pervades the country today. Everything in Nigeria these days seems to be driven by the desire for success irrespective of the means used in achieving success (Jimoh, 2009). The attenuation of this over time is the anomie that now characterizes the Nigerian society. The social vices bedeviling the society seem to have permeated the entire segments of the education sector. The manifestations are moral decadence, loss of family values, cultism, indecent dressing and examination malpractice that now characterize the education system of the country. The societal emphasis on success-goals, irrespective of the means employed in achieving these goals, may have pressurized some persons in the education industry to strain toward anomie. Such persons have resorted to the use of illegitimate procedures in achieving success in examinations. The resort to copying and use of other unfair means/ malpractices in examinations is a serious problem. This problem is symptomatic of a disease in our educational system which is eating into the vitals of our society. This malaise is harmful for the moral and intellectual development of our youths. It is afflicting the ethical and social fabric of our society (Okafor, 2013). According to Okafor (2009) perhaps the best explanation for the wide spread of examination malpractice in Nigeria is clearly a reflection of the large society that nurtures cheat and mediocre and turns them into celebrities. It is a reflection of the moral decadence of the society who has pen-robbers, smuggles and drug barons who are glorified by their ill gotten wealth. The society applauds ill-gotten wealth at the expense of hard work. It is the same society that produces politicians who engage in electoral malpractices to land on the corridor of power. Therefore, perpetrating examination malpractices has almost become part of the societal culture.

This study therefore examined students’ factors, teachers’ factors, parental factors, government’s factors and societal factors as correlates of examination malpractices among secondary schools in Nigeria.

To this end two research questions were raised and one null hypothesis generated to guide the study:

1. What pattern of relationships exists among the independent variables (students, teachers, parental, societal, government factors) on examination malpractice among secondary school students?

2. What is the joint contribution of the independent variables to the prediction of examination malpractices?

3. Do male and female students significantly differ in their involvement in examination malpractices?

Research design

The research design used in carrying out this study was a descriptive survey.

Sample and sampling technique

Multistage sampling technique was used to select a total of 300 Senior Secondary II students for the study. Five local governments area in Oyo central senatorial district were randomly selected, while four schools were randomly selected from each local government. From each of the 20 schools, 15 SS II students were randomly selected giving rise to a total number of 300 respondents used for the study. At last, 300 participants were used for the study.

Instrumentation

The study used a questionnaire titled: Predisposing Factors towards Examination Malpractice Questionnaire (PFTEMQ) developed and validated by the researchers.  It consisted of six sections. Section A contained personal data of the respondents while the other five sections consisted of items on the study variables whose response format is of a 4 point rating scale: Strongly Disagree (SD), Disagree (D), Agree (A) and strongly Agree (SA). Section B contains 15 items on Examination malpractice behaviour with reliability level ranging from 0.75-0.82;  section C contains 10 items on Students’ Factor Scale with reliability level ranging from 0.77- 0.86;  section D contains 16 items on Parental Factor Scale with reliability level ranging from 0.81-0.89;  section E contains 12 items on Teachers’ Factor Scale with reliability ranging from 0.82- 0.91, section F contains 10 items  on Government Factor scale with reliability level ranging from 0.85 - 0.93; and section G contains 13 items on Societal Factor Scale with reliability level ranging from 0.68-0.76.

The reliability and validity of the instrument was achieved through test-retest method with a two week interval between the two tests. More so, Crombach Co-efficient Alpha and Guttman Split half reliability were utilized.

Procedure

The researchers sought permission from the principals of the concerned schools and administered a total number of 300 hundred copies of questionnaires on the participants. The researchers interacted with the respondents and gave a brief preamble about the need for co-operation by promising them that the information would be treated with strict confidence. Each item was explained to the respondents. The respondents submitted their questionnaires to the researchers which was immediately analyzed.

METHOD

Pearson product Moment correlation was used to answer the research question one, while Multiple Regression Analysis was used to answer questions two and three. T- Test statistics and Analysis of variance were used to answer questions four. To test the four hypotheses, Analysis of variance was employed. The level of significance is 0.05 Alpha.

Research Question one: What pattern of relationships exists among the independent variables (students, teachers, parental, societal, government factors) on examination malpractice among secondary school students? The answer is presented in Table 1.

The results from Table 1 showed that there was a positive and significant relationship between students’, parental, societal and government factors on examination malpractices in various schools. However, teachers’ factor was not significantly correlated with examination malpractice in the school system. In the order of magnitude, students’ factor ranked the first (r=0.403, P<0.05), followed by government factor (r=0.331, p<0.05), parental factor (r=0.082, P<0.05), and societal factor (r=0.011, P<0.05).

Research question two: What is the joint contribution of the independent variables to the prediction of examination malpractices? The answer is provided in Table 2.

Table 2 showed that the five independent variables jointly predicted the incidence of examination malpractices among secondary school students. The table revealed a coefficient of multiple correlations (R) of 0.599 and a multiple adjusted R square of 0.342. This means that 34.2% of the variance in examination malpractices of the participants is accounted for by all the five predictor variables when taken together. The other factors accounting for 64.2% variation in the prediction of examination malpractices of the students are beyond the scope of this study. The ANOVA result also showed that F- ratio was also significant F (21.67, df =5/194, P<0.05). This implies that the joint contribution of the independent variables to the dependent variable was significant.

Hypothesis

Ho: Male and female students do not significantly differ in

terms of their involvement in examination malpractices.

The answer to this hypothesis is presented in Table 3. The table shows that, there was a significant difference in gender who are prone to examination malpractices among students (Df=198; N=200, t=4.966, P>.05). From the table, the male students have a mean score of 69.5081 towards examination malpractices while female students mean score was 57.0952. Hence, the result was therefore confirmed significant. This implies that there is a significant difference among gender differences to examination malpractices in the student. From the above findings, male students have higher tendency of involving in examination malpractices than female students in pursuits of academic needs.

However, the study is consistent with the findings of Neil and Fagbemi (2012) which opined that laziness on the part of students causes examination malpractice. It is a truism that a good number of the students who indulge in examination malpractices are actually intelligent but because of laziness, they find it difficult to study; some fail to attend classes; rather they prefer to while away their time in frivolities. Students are the main factor of examination malpractice because some of them want to pass at all cost without considering its consequences.

Research question 2 is: what is the joint contribution of the independent variables on examination malpractice?  The result of the study indicated that all the independent variables when taken together have a significant joint contribution to examination malpractices. This study supports the finding of Adeyemo (2011), Berliner (2008) and Ezezorgor (2012). They found that most parents fail in their duties to provide necessary materials that would enable their children to learn meaningfully and effectively. Some parents still go to the extent of registering their children in special centres so that their children would pass the examination. Societal emphasis on paper qualification without considering the means of getting such certificate and one’s abilities makes examination malpractice uncurbed; owing to this point, students therefore focus on getting the good grades at all cost. Also, government fails in making Nigerian education stan-dard, there is no full implementation of the examination malpractice decree which provides for imprisonment of culprits to 21years jail term. The teachers are not well remunerated. This prompts them into the act of assisting the students so as to get some amount from them to sustain their living.

The only hypothesis tested stated that there is no significant difference between male and female students on examination malpractice. The result analysis revealed that there is a significant difference in gender that is prone to examination malpractices among students. This implies that male students have higher tendency of involving in examination malpractice than female students in pursuits of academic needs. The finding of this study corroborates  the   earlier   findings  of  Campbell  (2013), Bandura (2009) Duze and Nash (2011). The study revealed that gender is a significant predictor of examination malpractice as male students were significantly more involved in examination malpractices than female. Male students are more courageous to take the risk involved in cheating in examination. Furthermore, Newberger (2003) asserted that children most especially boys are familiar with cheating well before they attempted to practice it academically. They might have practiced it or done it in family life, cheating in games in order to win for their group etc. 

Considering the finding of this study, it was concluded that students, especially the males, are not taking their studies seriously; they are no longer hardworking, committed and diligent in their academic pursuits; and most of them depend largely on their parents, friends and teachers to pass examinations. Parents who should show good examples to their children end up pressurizing their wards, and also try to help them in the wrong way to pass examination. Teachers are no longer dedicated to their duties as used to be in the past. The government has failed in its roles in financing education adequately; and the society is fond of legalizing corruption. All these culminated in examination malpractices among secondary school students in Nigeria. 

Since the whole segments of the nation’s life such as home, school, and society are unfortunately connected to the issues of examination malpractice, the government should organize enlightenment campaigns that will highlight the consequences of examination malpractice on the individual, schools and the society. This should be mounted and sustained at all tiers of governance through the use of modern and traditional mass communication media. Also, the government should sensitize all citizens to basic ethical values of self worth, dignity of labour, integrity and personal responsibility; and devote a substantial amount of money to fund education. Society itself should lay good examples by de-emphasizing ostentations, unbridled and flagrant display of materialism which could very easily be associated with success acquired through reaching the  pinnacle  via  certificate awarding examination.  Only teachers who are qualified, certificated, and competent and of good moral should be employed to teach the students. They should be dedicated teachers who would serve as role models in matters of punctuality, self discipline, accountability, integrity and sound leadership styles.

Likewise, examination bodies should appoint people of proven integrity to work in their administrative and operational sectors and as well as supervisors for their various examinations. Also, there should be an enabling environment for examination ethics where good teaching takes place. Furthermore, well equipped functional libraries should be in place to promote good reading habit. Facilities, like laboratories, and amenities for basic needs should be available and continuous assessment procedure should be given to students to ignite the zeal to study and develop self-confidence with less emphasis on certification. Guidance counselors should be employed and posted to secondary schools and other tertiary institutions to help students in self- understanding and self- management in relation to how they can utilize their assets and manage their abilities, capabilities for optimal development.

Limitations of the study

The study is limited in various ways. In the first instance, the variables considered as responsible for examination malpractices are inadequate judging from the result obtained.  Future researchers should look critically into these and accommodate more variables. The sample size was too small for this kind of important issue. The scope should be widened. 

The authors have not declared any conflict of interests.