THE MENACE OF EXAMINATION MALPRACTICE IN NIGERIA'S EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

A few days ago my department wanted me to represent them in a speech presentation, this was a privileged nomination for me, and yet a tedious task, since if i don't represent them well, they are all going to loose about 50% of their grade score in THE USE OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE GSS 121, after a lot of research i wrote the speech below, on the menace of examination malpractice. . . it was awesome anyway
 A SPEECH BY ANDREW MIRACLE ON BEHALF OF THE DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS, ON THE MENACE OF EXAMINATION MALPRACTICE IN NIGERIA'S EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
 
I remember years ago, when so little I was, every season I travelled to my home town, I’d love to sit on the laps of my Grandfather, as a young boy my Papa gifted me stories from his own life, with the confidence of his wise years he would narrate the lucidity of the educational system in his young years, he always called it a gift, he said treasure it; read, study, be diligent and when you’ve finally achieved excellence,

 You will always be the most preferred of men …

I wish my grandfather was still alive to witness what his highly- esteemed EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM HAS BECOME. In a heading of a popular Nigerian newspaper, it was boldly written: “Examination malpractice a menace that is killing faster than HIV”.

Apparently, one of the values and functionality of any educational system is in the structure of its assessment process. Right from time, examination has been one of the most practical way of assessment in education. Maduka (1993) defined examination as a way to ascertain how much of a subject matter in a particular field of study the candidate has mastered. Examinations could be internal or external. It could be oral, written or both.
 
The term malpractice shall be defined as all forms of cheating, illegal behavior or wrong doing.
                                                   

Therefore, examination malpractice is any illegal behavior or wrong doing by an examination candidate, before, during or after an examination, inside or outside an examination hall.

DIMENSIONS OF EXAMINATION MALPRACTICES range from impersonation, leakage of questions, Bringing in of foreign materials into the examination hall, tampering with results, computer fraud to fraudulent practices by invigilators, lecturers, officials and security personnel charged with supervising examinations. It’s clearly obvious that year in- year –out, students come up with ingenious methods of examination malpractice.


SOME OF THE CAUSES OF EXAMINATION MALPRACTICE IN OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM ARE:

·        Greed for money:  this is because the monetary rewards accruing to participants of examination malpractice is enormous and unimaginable

·        Un-seriousness among students: There is a very high probability that students are more likely to cheat when they are not prepared for examinations.

So my fellow students How would you view examination malpractice? Fulfilling or frustrating? Exciting or dull? Examination malpractice is like having spoilt fish and coffee for breakfast, a decision you will always regret, as the day gets brighter. Examination malpractice is like the modern day tuberculosis that deprives us of vital oxygen in the lungs of education. Students’ involvement in the practice has become perennial and institutionalized. It is a testimonial to the flawed process of admission into higher institutions.

 
THE WAY FORWARD
In this context, there are certain truths, every student should be reminded of from time to time, and one is the consequences of examination malpractices. Every effort must be made to stop it as quickly as possible before it becomes a serious epidemic in the society. The implementation of examination rules and guidelines should be strict, in this way examination malpractice will be on a distant journey away from us.

Finally, (walt Whitman) said, “surely whosoever speaks to me in the right voice, him or her shall I follow. The right voice bears the truth, and as always the truth is bitter. Let us stop examination malpractice today, and guess what,

It begins with me, you, the entire students of the department of statistics , all the great students of the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, the staff, lecturers, non-academic staff, and our country Nigeria. For with God on our side, we would attain excellence and just like my Grandfather said, YOU WILL ALWAYS BE THE MOST PREFERRED OF MEN.

Thank you.