Moving Towards Mastery: The Need to Eradicate Examination Malpractices in Nigerian Education System

Melancholically speaking, examination malpractices have become a constant feature, a recurring decimal in Nigerian education system. In spite of the individual and collective efforts of stakeholders in the public school system, the current dimension of examination malpractices is alarmingly high. This study determines the causes and feasible solutions to examination malpractices in Nigerian education system, using West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination and tertiary institutions’ internal examinations. A total of one hundred and twenty (120) people made up of sixty students, thirty teachers and thirty parents was used to carry out the study. These three groups, tagged STP were asked to generate the present causes and feasible solutions to this menace. Data was collected and analysed using simple percentage and correlation methods. The findings include social media, lack of facilities, ineffective and inefficient management, negligence of parents, inadequate coverage of school syllabuses, habitual lazy learning culture of students, indolence of teachers/lecturers, over-population, unfavourable examination environments, among others. The feasible solutions identified include provision of good facilities, employment of competent teachers/lecturers, availability of counselling unit in each school, among others.