Forms of Examination Malpractice In Nigerian Institutions
A number of different forms are employed by students to carry out this nefarious act. Some of these forms are unimaginable to the extent that it can beat the most vigilant invigilator during the conduct of examination. Some of the known types are:
(i) Micro-chips: This is also known as “chukwuli, reminder, bullet etc”. It is the most common or popular form employed by students to engage in examination malpractice. Micro-chips is simply a method whereby the student copies/summarizes relevant aspects of the recommended textbook by the lecturer in very tiny manner on pieces of papers, table, chair, walls/blackboards of venues of the examination, in sensitive parts of their bodies like breasts, thighs, identity cards etc. in the course of the examination, these micro-chips that may be hidden in their pockets, socks, shoes, bags, calculator, braziers by the female students, etc are used if found relevant.
Closely related to the above is swapping of scripts and smuggling of scripts into examination hall during the course of writing the examination.
(ii) Giraffe: The giraffe is a very tall African mammal with an extremely long neck, legs and a small head. As the name implies, giraffing is the process in which the student stretches his/her neck so as to spy or have a glance at other students' answers and reproduce same as his/her answer. It is the safest, simplest and most common among students.
(iii) Sorting: This is a system whereby students negotiate with willing lecturers for undeserved scores by rewarding the latter in cash or in kind.
(iv) ECOMOG/ECOWAS/OAU: As the name suggests, it is an alliance between and among school mates who are mutually compatible. This art is executed in three ways: via coded language, using the fingers or in whispers or through a question paper on which inscriptions have been made and then exchanged. The third device is through a clever male student and a weak female sitting close to each other while the female's paper is written for her by her male counterpart.
(v) Computer: It is a device used to store information in coded language. Unsuspecting lecturers are easily fooled since they may pass such a device for a calculator.
(vi) The Contractor System: It involves three actors. The attendant, who exchanges a question paper with an already prepared answer script, written for the “contactor” student by a “mercenary” student, at a designated point, this contract is successfully executed through the attendant who co-serves as the middle man.
(vii) Super-print system: This represents an umbrella term that embraces any manner of inscriptions on clothes, caps, white handkerchief etc.
(viii) Impersonation: This is a situation whereby a supposedly bright student pr outsider student is hired to write for the student he is impersonating. The system thrives where students do not necessarily have to go in with their identity cards. Even when ID cards are required, it is not a problem. A student can gain entrance into the examination hall with a defaced identity card.
Causes of Examination Malpractice
It is an established fact that examination malpractice which has assumed all alarming proportion is caused by a number of variables/factors. An attempt shall be made to highlight some of these factors, as follows:
- The Student: In the school set up, examination is administered primarily on students. Students these days are generally indolent and lazy. They are not prepared to work they hardly study and prepare for exams. They believe that money can do everything for them. Rather than spend time and energy studying/reading to pass an examination, students are very busy planning how to cheat. They make a fool of those who genuinely work hard to pass examinations. It no longer seems glorious for a student to swot and seat. The level of performance of students these days appears to be determined by how best they can cheat in examinations.
More importantly, the feeling of inferiority complex to which any student that fails exam is subjected in the school, at home and in the society at large would make the student go to any length to pass examination.
In fact majority of students today prefer disco parties, watching films and other trivialities to any serious academic engagement. Many female students are practising prostitutes. They “sell” their precious womanhood for marks or high grades.
- Lecturers: It is common knowledge that lecturers help students in their own departments to cheat in examinations. Some take it to the ridiculous extent of showing, or simply “selling” the questions in their own courses to their close friends - often female students. Again, such dubious students with the connivance of equally dubious lecturers, graduate with the class of degree/grade/certificate they do not merit. They often graduate with better grades than their mates that burn the midnight oil.
