THE INVESTIGATION INTO EXAMINATION MALPRACTICE AMONG SCIENCE STUDENTS IN NIGERIAN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

The study dealt with the investigation into examination malpractice in Nigerian tertiary institutions. Three research questions were formulated to guide the study. The survey research design was adopted for the study and two hundred (200) students were randomly selected as the sample size. Structured questionnaire was used to collect the data for the study. Mean was used to analyze the collected data for the study. The result of the analysis showed that fear of failure, incompetency of some lecturers, societal preference for paper qualification, unseriousness of students, high number of carryover and desire of parents to have their children in choice professions were recorded as the causes of examination malpractice. Impersonation, collusion, bringing of foreign materials into the examination hall, sorting, leakage of examination question papers and answers booklets, use of cell phones and rewriting of examination question after the time schedule were found to be the methods of examination malpractice. Based on the findings, some recommendations were made.