FORMS AND CAUSES OF EXAMINATION MALPRACTICE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN NIGERIA

The overall purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which school administrators try to contain the menace of examination malpractice. The study employed the descriptive survey design which covered all the secondary schools inBenue StateNigeria. Specifically, all public secondary schools and the private schools constituted the population of the study. The schools were specifically grouped into private and public as well as into rural and urban schools. The proportionate stratified Random Sampling Technique was used to collect the sample of 90 schools for the study. Mean statistic was used to analyse the research questions. The chi-square statistic was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. A self developed research questionnaire titled Examination Malpractice Assessment and Management Inventory (EMAMI) was used. The instrument was a two-part instrument; part ‘A' concerned personal data reflecting the location and type of school of the respondent while part ‘B' had three sections, sections 1 to 3 which sought to elicit responses concerning the forms and categories of examination malpractices, ways and methods of examination malpractices and efforts of school administrators in managing malpractices. The result shows that examination malpractices could be caused before, during and after the examinations. The outcome also shows that school location as well as type of school influence examination malpractice and that school administrators have various approaches that could be adopted to manage malpractices in school with a view to instituting an atmosphere of peace in the school. Appropriate recommendations were made for the administrators to contain malpractices and adequate conclusions were drawn.