Causes and consequences of Exam Malpractice and Solutions to help solve Malpractice

Definition of Examination Malpractice Malpractice is defined as any deliberate act of wrong doing, contrary to the rules of examinations des...

Definition of Examination Malpractice

Malpractice is defined as any deliberate act of wrong doing, contrary to the rules of examinations designed to give a candidate an unfair advantage or able frequently, to place a candidate at a disadvantage. Malpractice therefore introduces equities into the examination system. In some examinations, the level of malpractice is so high that it seriously undermines the credibility of the examination system.

Main Consequences of examination malpractice

The consequences of examination malpractice both to education and the society will be catastrophic in the long run candidates/students who would ordinarily be working hard to pass examination will now depend on quack arrangement. Since such arrangements rarely failed. Then the fraud or malpractice may eventually be seen as a way of academic exercise. The candidates produced in this manner will grow into adults and teachers or examinations officials who will not see anything wrong with such sophisticated and high class examination fraud thus defeating the goals of education by turning out certificated illiterates.

Examination truly is not the test of knowledge. So many persons that embark in examination malpractice don’t know that the future awaits them. Now talking about the word Hazards, it simply means dangers, consequences etc. Discoveries have soon that students who involve themselves into this mess called malpractice are sometimes forced by their peer group or even parents to do it and also so many persons have their own reasons for doing so. Below are the hazards of examination malpractice.
1. A wise saying says “you can’t eat your cake and have it back, so definitely the future awaits them. Indulging yourself in examination malpractice will and definitely affect your career someday and somewhere else.

2. Sometime it leads to disgrace- think about getting help doing and examination and maybe you are called to defend, you see 99.6% will not defend WHY because they don’t really know what they wrote.. Hmm alone a fool writes what he doesn’t know so don’t blame me if i call those that are involved into examination BIG FOOLS at 40

Some Forms of Exam Malpractice

1. Leakage
2. Impersonation
3. Smuggling of foreign materials
4. External Assistance
5. Collusion
6. Copying
7. Ghost (Special or Miracle) Centers
8. Intimidation
9. Markers Cheating, etc

Does It Have Consequences?

Examination malpractice increases lack of confidence among students who would have ordinarily passed an examination feel disappointed and loss of confidence when less intelligent ones perform better than then through cheating, thus leading to loss of confidence in themselves and in the examination and the system at large. Examinations malpractice may lure some students into others areas of misconducts such as prostitutions and or armed robbery, female students who lack money to fund external assistance or pay for scores may take prostitution while male may as well take stealing or armed robbery in a bid to make money to pay for scores.

Some Possible Solutions to Examination Malpractices

Some possible solutions are listed bellow:

i. Teachers should he trained properly in their fields. They will then have the tactics to follow on how to finish the syllabus for a particular term or at least cover a large part of it,

ii. Holidays may be more in number but reduced in length as students are reluctant to resume from long holidays.

iii. Guidance Counselors should be employed in all schools to guide the students on study habits, career prospects and requirement for various careers.

iv. Continuous assessment should be practiced correctly. It will reduce examination malpractices as 40% of marks are accumulated from various assessment techniques such as projects and assignments before actual examinations.

v. The number of invigilators and supervisors should be increased in the exam halls. Exam officers, Vice Principals and Principals should occasionally pay visits to exam halls to observe what is going on. In this way, they could notice any cheating behaviour.

vi. The students should be thoroughly searched before entering the hall. Apart from photographs, finger prints on certificates should he used for identification

as no two persons; even identical twins could have the same finger print. That is why it is used in crime detection.

In conclusion, solutions are only possible where there are Examination Halls, large classrooms, adequate seats and adequate number of teachers in a school. A class where theft are 150 students sitting on the floor and windows with some armed with knives and locally made pistols, an invigilator will not risk his life to prevent examination malpractice.

The government can play a very big role in curbing this menace by providing enough classrooms, desks and employing qualified teachers. And also, during an examination, the school should ensure that each student gets his/her own question paper and provide enough invigilators. 

The Federal government has established an Exam Ethics Committee, all Stale Government and Local Government Councils should do the same thing.

Feel free to add your own solutions. Thanks