Experts have attributed various reasons for the incessant rise in examination malpractice in Nigeria, especially during the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
Frank Anya, a public affairs commentator blamed the cancerous virus to the quality of teaching and parental guidance given to children.
“Examination malpractice takes root in the poor quality of teaching and parents paying less attention to the progress of their wards.
“When parents pay less attention they don’t see the struggles their children have with learning particular subjects. Attention is not about paying for the best schools, it is being intentional in what your child is learning and ensuring that they get the nuances of every topic and subject,” Anya said.
Besides, he disclosed that some teachers erroneously believe that passing knowledge must follow a particular style, which in the end does not work for individual students.
“It has been found that most students learn using unconventional and fun-like styles,” he said.
Taiwo Sule, not his real name attributed the unhealthy instances of examination malpractice, especially during WASSCE to fielding underaged candidates.
“Many parents are fond of pushing their children to write examinations even when they are not mentally qualified to do so, that is unhealthy and counter-productive in the long run,” he said.
Moreover, Sule noted that poor teachers’ remunerations are pushing away supposed qualified personnel from enrolling in the profession. The condition of service in most public and private schools has made most of the teachers not pay adequate attention to their duties.
Stanley Alaubi, a university lecturer stated that the main causes of examination malpractice are poor reading culture, and lack of motivation both intrinsic and extrinsic.
“Lack of punishment to offenders and desire for success at all cost which is the in thing today. Once there is a success we care less to verify the source, hence, people go out of their ways to achieve success, even in examination halls,” Alaubi said.
However, as a solution to curbing the ugly development, Anya advocates that the teachers’ recruitment style, especially in public schools be reviewed. In addition, he called for more capacity-building training for the teachers.
“I think we need to fix our teacher recruitment style, and more training in unconventional teaching styles, then, parents have to be made a critical part of learning,” he said.
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Similarly, Sule would that government should empower the teachers and put in place a well-guided monitory team to ensure quality delivery in the education sector.
For Alaubi, the solution to the menace of malpractice is punishment to serve as a deterrent to others.
Despite efforts by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) to curb examination malpractice the incidences of cheating during examinations seem to remain unabated in the Sub-Saharan Africa region.
Examination malpractice is any deliberate wrongdoing contrary to official examination rules and designed to place a candidate at an unfair advantage.
The research report indicates that in 2018, out of 1,572,396 candidates that sat for the WAEC examination, 102,058 results were withheld over exam malpractice, while in 2019, out of 1,590,173 candidates, 180, 205 results were seized; in 2020, 215,149 results out of 1,538,445 candidates that sat for examination were withheld.
According to the statistics between 2018 and 2019, the incidence of examination malpractice during the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) rose to 77percent. In 2020, it went up again by a 19.4percent margin, while in 2021; there was a decline of 10.9percent of the incidences of examination malpractice during WASSCE.
Recently, the governments of Rivers and Kwara States have cautioned the education managers at their various secondary school levels to ensure that the students are well prepared and dissuaded from being involved in examination cheating or be prepared to face punishments.
