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ABSTRACT

The centre point of this seminar paper is on incident of examination

malpractice in skill courses in Business education; causes, effect and

control.

The content of this paper have been systematically arranged to give a logical

explanation and insight on the subject matter. The study considers the

following; meaning of Business education, historical background of business

education, aims and objectives of business education, meaning of

examination malpractice, manifestation of examination malpractice in

Nigeria, factors responsible for examination malpractice, causes, agents,

forms and types, effects and control of examination malpractices.

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INTRODUCTION

One of the signs of the collapse of the countrys education system is

the rampant incidence of examination malpractice. In simple parlance,

examination malpractice denote any form of fraud committed by a candidate

or someone else in order to enable a candidate pass an examination, which

under normal circumstances such a candidate would not have passed. It is

very much acknowledged that during the era of missionary and colonial

administration of education in Nigeria, the story of examination malpractice

never reared its ugly head, for both the teacher and the taught were well-

trained and disciplined with the result that business of education was

handled with utmost seriousness. Most Nigerian nationalists who embraced

the western type of education were grounded to defend the certificates they

were awarded. Even at the university level, products of these missionary

schools were exemplary in character, training and responsibility- qualities

which enable them to win independence from British in 1960.

The administrators of education in Nigeria during the missionary and

later, colonial era had a lot of hidden agenda which informed some of their

success. For example, primary schools operated in churches for closer

supervision while post-primary schools, which were mostly boarding were

deliberately distant from towns to stop the children mixing with the wrong

type of persons and getting into bad habits. It was revealed by Musaazi

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(1982) that as pupils came from far away, their parents and family members

were physically remote and unable to visit or associate themselves in any

way with the life of the school. In fact, this was for fear of the influence of

the community or society.

Since the end of the Nigerian civil war in 1970, it seemed as if the dog has

been loose and wild action has become rife. There is multiplicity of

community schools and institutions perhaps to take care of yet another

problem population explosion. The result is that boundary lines between

institutions and societies have disappeared and there is unrestricted cross-

fertilization of ideas, views, information, behavior etc. To say the least, the

behaviour of adults in our society has greatly permeated every social

institution even universities. Ours is a pluralistic and permissive society

where delinquent behaviours such as cultism, cheating, stealing, fraud, a

twin brother of examination malpractices, drunkenness, prostitution,

smoking, dishonesty, lying, insubordination etc. are openly practiced and

thus perpetrated. The contact of Nigerian adults with the youths has affected

the latter and unless the adults in the society are disciplined and consistent in

behaviour, discipline in the schools will not be effective.

It is planned that at the end of the second three years of SSS 3, students

would have acquired some marketable skills to enable them become

employable or become self-employed. Rather than achieving this objective,

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the system still places a lot of emphasis on academic-oriented education,

which down-plays techni8cal, vocational, agricultural and other skills

oriented aspects of education.

Technical workshops have virtually disappeared from the countrys junior

and senior secondary schools.

Also, the economy in which the society operates is so bartered and

unpredictable that there is much reliance on certificates or paper

qualifications before survival of anyone can be assured. It is this monopoly

of prestige which paper qualifications enjoy that lures most Nigerian into

committing various sorts of examination malpractices, since companies,

governments, organizations, private employers of labour and institutions, all

insist on certificate as pre-conditions for employment and admission.

To most Nigerians, cheating at examinations is no longer regarded as

something the society forbids since almost everybody in the society

student, parent, guardian, politician, school head, teacher, supervisor,

government workers including examination official. Take it to any angle; the

Nigerian society is to blame for the rampant incidence of examination

malpractice at every level of the countrys education system.

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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF BUSINESS EDUCATION IN

NIGERIA

Business education in the formal sense has been in existence since the

birth of man; this is because people have been using their business skill and

knowledge informally acquired in business situation and transactions e.g.

people engage themselves in production, exchanges, storing, transportation

etc. with reference to the formal type of business education, nobody can say

actually when it started in Nigeria. It can however, traced to back to the 19 th

century when some Nigeria nationals in business partnership with overseas

experts had to learn simple commercial arithmetic, some book keeping,

business communication (Business English Vocabulary) and some typing so

as to facilitate business transactions and meet the needs of their export

markets.

The government and early missionaries contributed immensely to the

evolution of business education; they trained clerks who learn business

arithmetic and simple book keeping. Business day and evening schools were

opened by these clerks, they employed untrained teacher to teach those who

came to the institute essentially to learn typewriting, shorthand and book

keeping. Apart from these private business schools, record shows that St.

Andrew College, Oyo founded in 1859 also taught simple accounts to

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teachers trainees, some of whom later on their own learnt typewriting and

shorthand during holidays.

Between 1940 and 1960, the Roman Catholic Mission established

schools for training girls as secretary. In 1955, the secondary modern

schools were introduced to give pre-vocational business training; there are

also some leading commercial secondary schools like Abboit institute

sapele, Zik college sapele, Essi college Worri, Olu-eewa college Ile-Ife,

Niger college Benin city, Premier college Yaba, Christian Secondary

Commercial College Apapa etc. in the case of post secondary institutions,

Yaba college of Technology founded in 1932 was the only institution

offering business education courses.

In the last decades, there was a big growth in the number of

institutions offering business education in Nigeria. At the university level,

the University of Nigeria (UNN) was the first, others are Ahmadu Bello

University (ABU) Zaria, Uni7versity of Benin, University of Port Harcourt

etc. at other tertiary institutions, a great number of colleges of education,

colleges of technology and polytechnics offers business education courses.

At the secondary level, all junior and senior secondary schools in Nigeria

now offer business courses because of the advent of the National Policy on

Education (NPE): A big questions arises; what do these colleges /

universities hope to achieve by running the business education programme,

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In the general mono education as education in - business subjects. In this

respect, one can infer that business education then implies only education in

subjects like shorthand, typewriting, book-keeping, accountancy, office

practice and is aimed at helping the students to know how to use the services

provided by the business world.

Anao (1996), Osuala (1996), and Atueyi (1999) agrees that business

education is the sum total of the knowledge, skills, and aptitude that are

required not only for successfully promoting and administering a business

enterprises, but also for entry into and advancement in jobs. It includes

education for office occupations, distribution and marketing occupations,

business, teaching, business admini8stration, and basic economic

understanding.

The main objective of business education is to afford its students the

opportunity of acquiring knowledge that will make them self-reliant through

exposure to skill courses or subjects.

AIMS OF BUSINESS EDUCATION

The aims of business education are as follows;

1. Production of manpower to posses the required knowledge, skill

and attitude for harnessing other resources and bringing into a co-

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operative relationship, yielding the goods and services demanded

by society for the satisfaction of their needs and wants.

2. Turning out the right caliber of work force with business ability for

positions in various sectors of the economy.

3. Provision of teachers with adequate business skills and pedagogy

needed for imparting business skills, knowledge and attitudes to

business education student in secondary and post secondary

institution.

OBJECTIVES OF BUSINESS EDUCATION IN LINE WITH THE

NATIONAL POLICY ON EDUCATION (NPE)

a. To acquire knowledge of business studies

b. To develop basic skills in office education

c. To prepare for further training in Business Education

d. To develop orientation and basic skills to start a life of work for

those who cannot go beyond the junior secondary schools

With regard to business teacher preparation, the objectives are as follows:

a. To produce qualified and competent graduates who will be able to

teach business subjects in the secondary schools.

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b. To produce business Teachers who will start the so much

desired revolution of vocational development right from the

Nigerian primary and secondary schools

c. To produce Business Education who will be able to inculcate the

vocational aspects of Business Education in the society

d. To prepare society in Business Education with necessary

competencies so as to qualify them for further study in business

Education in Nigeria and

e. To equip graduate with the right skills to engage in a life work in

the office as well as for employment.

MEANING OF EXAMINATION MALPRACTICE

Examination malpractice is a common phenomenon in the Nigerian

education system not only in skill courses in Business Education. For this

reason, the issue of examination malpractice will be generally discussed.

Attempts have been made by experts to define examination malpractice from

various perspectives.

Olayinka (2003) defined examination malpractice as a misconduct or

improper practice in any examination with a view to obtaining good results

through fraudulent action.

Oluyeba and Daramola (2002) defined examination practice as an

irregular behaviour exhibited by candidates or anybody charged with the

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conduct of examination in or outside the examination hall before, during or

after such examinations.

Ahmed (1993) believed that an examination malpractice is any act of

wrong doing or neglect that contravenes the rules of acceptable practices

before, during and after an examination by anybody in any way is

tantamount to malpractices.

Shonekan (2003) sees it as irregularities which are premeditated and

perpetuated by the candidate or their agents with the intention of gaining

undue advantages in the examinations.

Usman (1994) explained that, examination malpracti7ce involves various

method employed by candidates to cheat during examinations. While

Sahmans et. al. (1990) elaborates further and better that malpractice in

examination as an unlawful behaviour or activity engaged by students to

have personal advantage in an examination over their colleagues or mates

who are competing in the same examination. Onfechere (2002) accepted this

definition by further throwing more light on its illegality that it is an

unacceptable equally, an act or any acts of misconduct such as leakage,

impersonation, writing on hidden parts of the wares, encoding/decoding of

the fingers for objective tests, exchange of question papers and answer

booklets committed before, during or after the examination by either the

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students taking the examination or by the officials assigned with the

administration, evaluating or measuring the examination result.

Dike (19960 from the psychological view said examination

malpractice is all forms of cheating which directly or indirectly falsely the

ability of the students.

From the above definitions and explanation, examination malpractice

can be conclusively defined as all forms of behaviour and activities which

seek to enhance the performance of student(s) which is not commensurate

with his ability.

MANIFESTATION OF EXAMINATION MALPRACTICE IN

NIGERIA

According to Adah (2007), the problem of examination malpractices

in Nigeria seems to be as old as the introduction of formal system of

education.

The first major incidence of examination malpractices was in 1914, when

the senior Cambridge local examinations leaked. This scenario took an

unprecedented surge in 1963 when two public examinations of 1967, 1977,

1981 and 1987 leaked.

Others traced the origin of examination malpractices to the wave of

cancellation of Nigerians candidate paper in 1948 because it posses on

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history during the 1940 matriculation examination to the then Yaba Nigeria

Technical. The most pronounce malpractice in Nigeria in early examination

was that of 1964 that was tagged expo subsequently in 1970, 1973, 1974,

1979, 1981, 1988 and 1991 followed.

The aforementioned leakages attracted the attention of the

promulgation of decree 27 of 1973, and miscellaneous decree 20 of 1984 to

curb examination malpractices, and the later decree prescribed 21 years jail

term for offenders.

FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR EXAMINATION MALPRACTICE

Researcher on examination malpractice had argued and contributed to

the basic factors responsible for examination malpractice in Nigeria.

Aina and Aliyu et. al. (2001) agreed in their various submissions that the

desire to pass at all cost is responsible for examination malpractice. The

facts remain that Nigerian orientation on education is certificate and high-

grade intensiveness, students, parents, school management tend to push

harder on wards to get the certificate and good grade by all means to secure

employment, and others prefer to manipulate to be admitted in a choicest

higher institutions.

All these factors according to Denga (2003) are boiled down to three factors

of:

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a. Psychological

b. Environmental

c. Intelligence

a. Psychological: - this includes all the stress, which is often induced

by parent, the peer pressure, groups, and students; this they

experience enormous stress and anxiety in trying to meet the

various demand of subjects significantly. A study conducted by

Drake supported these psychological reasons, that stress and

anxiety experienced by students during examination are

conspicuous, thus, have been criticized because students tend to

develop undesirable habit which normally led them to poorly

prepare for examination(s) and subsequently exposed them in

engaging in examination malpractice and misconduct. It should be

taken that psychological tremor of failure or scoring low grade

promotes their involvement in examination malpractice.

b. Environmental Factor: this is another factor stated by Denga

(2003) that basically led students to examination malpractice, the

environment factor include the crowded nature of our classroom as

well as examination halls with few invigilators during

examination. Teachers/Lecturers inability to cover up the

stipulated syllabus, for the period been stated before an internal or

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1. Overcrowding in the school: the number of students per

teacher is very much and it does not enhance effective

teaching and learning and the after mount of it is

examination malpractice.

2. Inadequate qualified teacher: this lapse usually lure students

into examination malpractice mostly when writing an

external examination because students taught by qualified

teacher and otherwise will be subjected to the examination

question.

3. Poor teaching-learning facilities: the equipment and

facilities needed to train students in skill courses are not

provided; those available are either poorly managed or

obsolete.

4. Lack of confidence in students: students get involved in

examination malpractice because of loss of confidence in

their ability. This could be attributable to many factors.

5. Poor preparation by students: most students get prepared for

examination on the eve of examination while some do not

prepare at all, rather, they depend on other means of

examination malpractice.

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Some other causes of examination malpractice include non-provision of

extra curricular activities, invigilators attitude during examination, desire to

impress, fear of self-devaluation in competition and general fear of failure

among others.

AGENTS OF EXAMINATION MALPRACTICES

According to researches carried out by Aina (2001), the following are

identified as the agents of examination malpractices.

a. Parents/Guardian who buy live papers or bribe examiners or

invigilators.

b. Teachers/ Head Teachers who collect money and turn a blind eye.

c. Lazy students who do not take their studies seriously and still want

to get the best score.

d. The examiners who set and mark the papers

e. The printers of the question papers

f. Officials of the examining body, who process questions paper,

supervise printing arrangements or transport printed questions.

g. Supervisors/ invigilators at the centers

h. Government establishing schools without adequate equipment and

staffing.

i. Law enforcement agents

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j. Society due to its quest for materialism.

FORMS AND TYPES OF EXAMINATION MALPRACTICES

Researches have shown that, there are various forms and types of

examination malpractice, parts of these forms according to Ogunu (2001) are

highlighted below:

i. Collusion

ii. Impersonation

iii. Smuggling of answer scripts

iv. Examination leakages

v. Mass cheating

vi. Insult/Assault on examination officials

vii. Irregular activities inside and outside the examination hall

viii. Expo

ix. Contractor

x. Dubbing

xi. Super print

xii. Microchips

xiii. Hi-tech micro computer

xiv. Networking and

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xv. Refusal to submit answer script at the end of examination among

others.

EFFECTS OF EXAMINATION MALPRACTICES

a. It discourages good candidate from studying hard: good candidate

are tempted to believe if you cannot beat them, join them

especially as they see other candidates get away with their corrupt

behaviours. This behaviour may be contagious as more and more

candidates tend to join in examination malpractice. They believe

that even if they are caught, they will get away with it and the end

will justify the means.

b. Discredits certificates: employer of labour require certain skills

from their employees based on the certificates they hold. These

employers are disappointed when their employees perform grossly

below expectation. The implication is that the employers will begin

to rely more on their own tests and oral interviews than the

certificates the applicant are holding in order to employ suitable

hands. This is not only in job-seeking but even in admission

process.

c. It denies innocent students opportunity for admission: many good

students have been denied admission by the corrupt ones who

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through examination malpractice have better score and grades. The

brains that could help in research and development are likely to be

thrown out or frustrated while seeking admission.

d. It decreases job efficiency: this has a serious implication on the

gross domestic products of the country. It also has effect on

general quality and standard.

e. It causes delay in the processing of examination sores and grades:

every year, many students are caught for engaging in various

examination malpractices which needs to be investigated before

results are released. Though some result are withheld pending the

determination of the cases, some are decided before results are

released. This extends processing time.

CONTROL OF EXAMINATION MALPRACTICE

The following measures could be taken to curb the problem of

examination malpractices in our institutions of learning:

1. All schools should be properly and adequately equipped

with modern teaching and learning equipment and facilities.

2. Staff salaries and fringe benefits must be paid as at when

due, so as to reduce corruption within the educational

system.

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3. Sitting arrangements in the examination halls should be well

organized to eliminate or reduce examination malpractice.

4. All stake holders within the educational system must uphold

the sanctity of examinations, so that quality may be restored

to the system.

5. The government should cater for the general well-being of

her citizen by eradicating poverty.

6. The government should make teaching lucrative by

employing and retraining the best brains and fill the

shortfalls in teacher supply in our schools.

7. Government should provide the necessary instructional

infrastructural facilities adequately.

CONCLUSION

Examination malpractice is a general phenomenon which needed to be

seriously battled in order to restore the standard of education in Nigeria.

Examination malpractice is not only limited to skill courses in Business

education but a general concerns because what are attributable to

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examination malpractice in Business education are also applicable to the

general education.

All the stakeholders in the educational system including the

government, parents, teachers, heads of schools and the society at large must

join hands together towards minimizing or eradicating examination

malpractice.

REFERNCES

Adah, (2007). How to curb examination malpractice. Nigeria: Sun news

publishing, October, 20.

Aina and Aliyu (2001). Promoting Examination Ethics. The challenge of a

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collective responsibility. Lagos: examination ethics project

publication.

Denga, D. (2002). Educational malpractices and cultism in Nigeria. Calabar:

Rapid Educational publishers.

Maduka, (2001). Examination malpractices. Causes, Implications and

Remedies. Benin: Amik press.

Ogunu, (2001). Strategies for effective suspension of examination to curb

Examination malpractices in tertiary institutions in Nigeria

examination malpractice; causes, implication and remedies. Benin:

university of Benin publications.

Daramola, S. & Oluyeba F. (2002). Incidence and Detention of

Examination malpractices in Nigeria public Examination Ethics. The

challenge of a collective responsibility. Lagos: Exam Ethics Project

Publication.

Onfechere, I. (2002). Promoting examination malpractice ethics: the

Challenge of a collective responsibility. Lagos: examination ethics

Project.

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