Certainly, the English teacher is not the only one who can correct the misconception of a word. We can also make use of the dictionary on our own, or, like in my case, learn from the Agricultural Science Teacher. As JSS2 students in an Agric Science Class, we knew that crop pests such as the bean weevil and the yam beetle had negative effects on the crops. As soon as the lesson started, we were ready to make contributions to the lesson. Having gone into the lesson, the teacher wrote down a fourth guideline on the board which read ‘Economic Importance of Pests’, and this got me seriously confused. Sensing that the rest of the class was in this same confused state, I raised my hand and got his attention. I told him, out of my natural curiosity and innocent ignorance, that pests constituted nuisance to agriculture and so could not be said to be important. The teacher kindly explained that the importance in that context meant significant effects, both positive and negative. He must have sensed that I was about to ask him to give a beneficial effect of pests because he went ahead to explain that while some pests attacked crop roots, they broke down soil particles as they burrowed thereby creating air spaces in the soil – a process that is very similar to tillage.

While farming would be a very interesting subject to write about, my aim is not to talk about Nigeria and agriculture, but to discuss examination malpractice in Nigeria's educational institutions as objectively as possible by highlighting its 'positive' and negative effects. But, to drive my point home, I must assume that the cases I will raise are situations in which malpractice is effectively carried out. By this, I mean that the people who engage in malpractices in my examples are not caught while in the act, talk more of penalised. To achieve this, I will also raise questions about examination malpractices, and answer them analytically.

What is Examination Malpractice?

At this point, I would rather not bother you with the word Latin origin or root of the word “malpractice”. I take “examination malpractice” to mean any action or measure that prevents an examination from being the test of knowledge it should be. Whatever jeopardizes this objective of an examination, whether an action or an arrangement, is a form of examination malpractice. Individuals who engage in malpractice try to better their chances of getting high scores or grades. A student cheating in a school leaving examination such as the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) would most probably be trying to get a Credit or a Distinction.

Who are the beneficiaries of examination malpractice? And what are the benefits?

The parents that encourage their sons and daughters to engage in examination malpractice benefit from it since this can guarantee success in the examination. Schools that pay invigilators to allow their students to cheat in examinations also benefit. With the correct answers, a school that does so could have the highest aggregate performance in the country and most probably receive an award from the government. Their performance could also encourage many parents to register their children in the school. The invigilators themselves leave schools with heavy pockets, figuratively speaking. Some schools spend thousands of naira in bribing invigilators. An invigilator who collects bribe can use the money to do a whole lot of things.

Even script markers who alter students’ wrong answers while marking to help them get higher scores also receive gifts in form of cash or materials from schools. But the greatest beneficiaries are the examination candidates. They can relax, knowing that a good result and a good rest are assured, probably because of a fool-proof technique or an aid in the examination board or group organising the examination. They can pass with very high results without really expending all that energy on studying. Through examination malpractice, they can even scale through university education without, for once picking up a book that is not a magazine or novel (for those who even attempt reading), and can successfully graduate with at least a second class upper in a Nigerian University.

All that energy is stored up for social networking, partying and other fun activities. The students essentially reap more than they have sown – a situation any economist would call a ‘profit’. In the end, we can have a ‘medical doctor’ who has the certificate to go with the status without having any idea what blood sugar has to do with diabetes. This would be nothing short of miraculous – and doesn’t everybody like miracles?

Who are the losers of examination malpractices? And what they lose?

Recall that I made an assumption earlier that parties engaging in malpractice do so effectively. Well, this is where it gets really ridiculous. We can cheat our enemies, we can cheat our friends, we can cheat our loved ones, and, with some effort, even cheat ourselves; but, the fact remains that we cannot cheat nature; because nature cannot be fooled. The same people who benefit from exam malpractice loose in different ways.

The parents who encourage their child by giving him or her money to bribe invigilators give their child the worst notions about life. The child could start believing that ‘Mum’ and ‘Dad’ would always be there to help in examinations; that there will always be help in examinations in the form of compromised invigilators or possibly that without malpractice, a good result is not obtainable. No parent wants an overly dependent child.

The schools earlier mentioned also lose. Where a school collects money from its students to bribe invigilators so that its students will be at liberty to cheat in any form, the students actually end up passing in flying colours. Now, if these schools were to have its students interviewed by a radio or TV station because of the excellent results, it is very possible that these students bearing Distinctions and Credits in English in the examination would find it difficult, if not impossible, to string two sentences together without splashing grammatical blunders all over the interviewer. What else would be said about the school if not that it helps its students to cheat?

A bad reputation means bad business for schools, especially private schools (except in cases, and extremely rare ones at that, where parents feel passing examinations is more important than having the actual knowledge).

‘Formal’ education in schools was introduced by the West and this was superimposed on the traditional ‘informal’ education. Right from when it began till today. In true formal education, no authority in any particular subject area wants to believe that his or her subject is too difficult to excel at, as this is an indication that the subject is being taught poorly. Sadly, this is not always the case in Nigeria.

To some lecturers and teachers, the lower the percentage of students that pass the course or subject they teach, the more people feel that it takes gifted minds to pass, and in effect, the more intellectually gifted the lecturer must be to have mastered the subject. If an invigilator/script marker were to have it that most of the students he or she invigilated or marked their papers performed outstandingly in a paper, and the authorities in that field were like the ones described, he could be questioned. Now, it is very possible that the candidates might have done well out of their own honest efforts. But if the invigilator/script marker were not able to prove this (especially because he has helped them to cheat) then he could be suspended or sacked, fined or imprisoned for conspiring with the candidates to cheat – note that he was not caught in the act, but was facing the after effects. He would bring disgrace to himself and his family if this were the case. Luckily for compromised invigilators, and quite unfortunate for those who stand for honesty and fairness, the press in Nigeria is not always interested in this kind of stories for a long time. But if it were in the US, the culprit would probably be on the news for nothing less than four days, whether there is a trial or not – enough time on the TV to be an example of the type of citizens Nigeria does not need.

As anyone should suspect, the greatest beneficiaries of examination malpractice are at the same time the greatest losers. Where candidates scale through an exam and continue to rely on malpractice for other exams, they would not be able to defend their certificates and would therefore lose their jobs as quickly as they got employed or began practicing their professions.

They could become ‘learned’ gentlemen or ladies as the case may be, having masters’ degree in an area of concentration in Law but finding it difficult to make reasonable arguments in court. Such lawyers could end up losing cases because, unfortunately there is no cheating and certainly no dilly-dallying in the court of law – no judge or magistrate has that time for half-baked graduates of the law. In fact, I doubt that such a person could be called to bar.

They could also become surgeons who would end up turning the theatre into an abattoir because such surgeons would excel at cutting the wrong blood vessels or organs, or leaving jewellery in patients. Sometimes, they also become architects who build high capacity coffins in the place of buildings.

But as we are in Nigeria, we know what they eventually become – bad leaders. Leaders who are as bad in oratory as they are in writing; leaders who have been baptised with all sort of names by virtue of their lack of virtuosity; leaders who typify retrogress and laxity; leaders who ban articles like these from being printed in newspapers, not out of guilt, but out of acquired criminality – a criminality they acquired from the hours they spent before exams while in school, rehearsing cheat codes. In the end, they lose their self dignity and self worth. And what is a man without these two things, if not an empty vessel?

Anything further?

What hurts the most about examination malpractice is that even after all these parties lose, the entire nation loses with them. We lose our future generation’s literacy to the unqualified teachers among them; we lose our loved ones’ lives to the quack doctors among them; we lose our promising future to the bad leaders among them. Examination malpractice propagates the cheating consciousness – an ideology I have summarised as “The More You Cheat, The Higher You Reach”. This is one of the things that have affected the Nigerian mind set so much, that some have even gone ahead to attempt cheating in their different religious centres.

Whether examination malpractice and other forms of cheating is of any real benefits to anybody remains uncertain. But what is certain is that the school is one of the first three most efficient agents of socialisation. So, if we can all work together to eliminate examination malpractice in our schools, we would have indirectly commenced Nigeria’s true ‘Rebranding’.

Source:http://passnownow.com/?p=posts&title=the-economic-importance-of-exam-malpractice-a-must-read-before-your-next-exam&id=4445#.UlRJ5vXOuTc.twitter

How do we come out of the pit of examination malpractice in this country? How?

This crime has become an epidemic, in fact, it has been institutionalized, the problem has gone deep into the roots of this country, it is only God that will eliminate this cankerworm in our educational system.

Anytime i see this problem, i know that we have a great problem in this country.

This problem is everywhere in Nigeria.

Pls. Moderators, i recommend this thread to move to the frontpage for people to learn, one or two things about the demerit of examination malpractice.

God bless you.
God2man.