Examination malpractice has been defined variously by many authors; some ten (10) definitions/views are presented here:
i. Chukwuemeka (1982) referred to examination malpractice as violation of examination rules and regulations by candidates.
ii. Aliyu (1996) looked at examination malpractice as an irregular behaviour related to the examination exhibited by candidates or anybody charged with the conduct of examination in or outside the examination hall before, during and after the examination.
i. Chukwuemeka (1982) referred to examination malpractice as violation of examination rules and regulations by candidates.
ii. Aliyu (1996) looked at examination malpractice as an irregular behaviour related to the examination exhibited by candidates or anybody charged with the conduct of examination in or outside the examination hall before, during and after the examination.
iii. Argungu (1971) defined examination malpractice as any irregularity which is premeditated and perpetrated by candidates or their agents with the intention of gaining undue advantage over others in an examination.
iv. Jega (2006) saw examination malpractice as any form of misbehavior that leads to the alteration of or tempering with the prescribed ways of conducting examination in any given system.
v. Examination malpractice is a punishable offence which is committed during the process of normal and recognized examination (Saye, 2003 in Jega, 2006).
vi. Olagunju (1994) in Jega (2006) defined examination malpractice as the absence of the adherence to the rules and regulations guiding the conduct of examination.
vii. Any wrong doing, misconduct, dishonesty or improper practice for personal gains, or violation of set rules of conduct during examinations (Jegede, 1996 in Jega, 2006).
viii. Any act of omission and commission which compromises the validity, reliability and integrity of any assessment or evaluation system i.e. the violation of, or disregard for examination ethics (Obo, 2008).
ix. Obot (1997) defined examination malpractice as wrong (illegal/immoral) doing in terms of acts of commission or omission during the construction, custodianship, administration, marking and release of results of examination on before, during or after such examinations.
x. Joshua (2008) synthesized many definitions of examination malpractice by defining the concept as any unauthorized or unapproved action, inaction, activity, behaviour or practice that is associated with the preparation, conduct and processing of examination and other forms of assessment, and carried out by any person involved in preparing for, giving, taking and processing that examination at any level.
From these various definitions presented, and many other ones in the literature, examination malpractice is noted as fraud within the school system, and does occur at all levels of education, right from nursery, primary through secondary to tertiary levels of education in Nigeria. Infact, examination malpractice is a peculiar ‘corrupt practice’ within the educational system. This practice is thriving strongly in our system, irrespective of religious affiliation of the various stakeholders in the school system, thus making it a real ‘monster’. This concept is a real monster because the culture of hard work, academic excellence, honesty, decency are fast eroding the present generation of youths in different institutions of learning. This monster, examination malpractice, tends to weaken the validity of any examination, and to make examination results worthless and unreliable. Actually examination malpractice produces ‘error scores’ in examinations, where students earn marks/scores above/below their abilities, and the long terms effect is wrong placement in schools and employment of unskilled workers into various sectors of the economy.
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