Quality Asurance: A Practical Solution To Examination Malpractices In Nigerian Secondary Schools

This paper focuses on quality assurance as a solution to examination malpractices in Nigerian secondary schools. An examination is an instrument for decision-making on the performance and consequently the job opportunity and educational advancement for an individual. Therefore, many examinees would want to pass by all means, their abilities notwithstanding. Examination malpractice occurs every year and it seems to have defied solutions. It has negative consequences on the examinees and the education system. Using quality assurance strategy, inputs of high standard teachers, students, facilities, curriculum and education policy into the education system would be ascertained. School managers are to monitor the inputs and ensure proper processing so that relevant and adequate knowledge would be acquired. Thus, this paper recommends that there should be quality inputs and processing of all resources. It also recommends that automatic promotion should be discouraged and that there should be moderate class-size. Introduction In Nigeria, education has been adopted as an instrument for national development. Therefore, governments, communities, private organizations, and individuals have established educational institutions with a view to training the citizens for the development of the nation’s physical and human resources. In these institutions, teaching and guidance activities are supposed to take place so that appropriate skills and knowledge can be acquired by the students. Furthermore, a machinery, through which the extent of knowledge and skill acquisition is determined at each stage of education has been set up. This is in form of examination which would be organized in order to evaluate, assess and test knowledge and skills. The outcome of the examination is used as a basis for decision-making on the examinee’s ability. The examinee is consequently awarded a certificate which could qualified him for admission into a school, promotion into higher level of an institution and employment opportunities. However, many decisions, which emanate from examinations may not be valid due to involvement of examinees in malpractices. When such decisions are upheld, the certificate awarding institutions would be promoting and graduating incompetent personnel who would not be able to contribute positively national development. Malpractice occurs in both internal and external assessment of educational outcome. It is a problem which has been afflicting the education system for many years. It seems to have defied solutions, as all antidotes applied so far have been faulted by fraudsters. In fact, it constitutes the most serious problem facing Nigerian education system in general and secondary education in particular (Obe, 1998; Adesina, 2005). Therefore, there is a need to sanitize the nation’s education by getting rid of examination malpractices. This is a challenge to the administrators of education within and outside the school system. In this paper, quality assurance is examined as a practical solution to examination malpractices. International Journal of African & African American Studies Vol. V, No. 2, Jul 2006 Conceptual Clarification The following terms are defined as used in this paper. Quality: Something good, ideal, or of high standard. Quality Assurance: Consistent provision and utilization of good and high standard resources to foster effective teaching and learning, in every stage and aspect of the educational system. Quality assurance is meaningful when application of its strategy is not deferred till the end of an educational programme. Examination: Test, assessment, evaluation. It is “an instrument for assessing individuals’ skills and knowledge in general, and specific areas of studies, and overall academic achievements” (Adekale, 1993, p.20). Examination Malpractice: ‘A misconduct or improper practice before, during or after any examination by the examinees or others with a view, to obtaining good results, by fraudulent means’ (Obe, 1998, p.36). Input: Human and non-human resources provided into an organization from the beginning of a programme to the implementation stage and to the end of the programme. Process: Activities such as teaching, learning, and counseling, in which personnel in the educational institutions engage. Examination Malpractices An examination, which can be in essay or objective type, oral or written, theory or practical, constitutes an integral part of the education process. It is conducted in order to determine the extent to which knowledge and skills have been acquired. Based on examination results, decision could be taken on admission into educational institutions and employment in the labour market. As an instrument for decision-making, examination is always prone to fear and anxiety. Many examinees would want to pass the examination by all means. Also, many school authorities and parents would want to explore means of getting good grades for their students and children. Hence, they resort to different forms of malpractices before, during and after examinations. According to Adesina (2005), examination malpractices include leaking out questions to students, girraffing and smuggling of material into examination hall. Others are deliberate extension of time by supervisors and invigilators, change of scores, buying and selling of examination grades, question papers and prepared answers, and trading sex for question papers, marks and grades. Also, Magaji (2006), identified impersonation, collusion between candidates, collusion between candidates and officials, assault and intimidation, mass cheating, teacher-student affair, bribery, spying, submission of multiple scripts, use of coded or sign language, multiple entry for the same examination among others, as different forms of malpractices in Nigeria. Malpractice in an examination has been in existence a long time ago. For example, there was a leakage of Senior Cambridge Local Examination in 1914 (Ezezobor, 1983; Adekale, 1993). After independence, there was hardly any year when no examination malpractice was not recorded. There were leakages in West African Examination Council 16 International Journal of African & African American Studies Vol. V, No. 2, Jul 2006 (WAEC) paper in 1963, 1967, 1971, 1977 and 1981. A panel of enquiry, set up by the Federal Government to investigate the 1977 examination leakage, recommended sanction on WAEC officials who were involved in the malpractice, shedding of WAEC workload and use of continuous assessment as a factor for award of certificate (Ezezobor 1983, Adesina 2005). Consequently, new examination bodies were established. These were Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) established in 1978 to conduct matriculation examinations for admission into universities, polytechnics and colleges of education; National Business and Technical Examination Board (NABTEB) established in 1992 to conduct business and technical examinations; National Board for Educational Measurement (NBEM) established in 1992 and changed to National Examination Council (NECO) in 1999 to conduct school certificate examinations (Olagboye, 2004). Another measure was the Federal Government’s promulgation of Decree 20 in 1984, which stipulated a 21-year jail term for those found guilty of examination malpractice. Also, there was decree 33 of 1999 stipulating imprisonment for a term up to five years or fine of N50,000.00 to N100,000.00 for any person convicted of examination malpractice (National Open University of Nigeria, n.d.). In spite of these measures, the menace continued to occur in virtually all public and institutionally organized examinations. In 2006, the Federal Ministry of Education blacklisted and derecognized 324 secondary schools across the nation as centres for conducting public examinations from 2007 to 2010. The distribution of the schools which were found guilty of examination malpractices, is shown in Table 1. Table 1: Examination Malpractices in Nigerian Secondary Schools Zone No of schools involved % North-Central 54 16.6 North-East 08 2.5 North-West 12 3.6 South-East 48 14.8 South-South 116 36.0 South-West 86 26.5