Men Accused Of Writing Exams For Girlfriends

Academic dishonesty, including cheating, widely practiced by students pose a serious problem across schools and campuses while educationists have overlooked the strategies adopted by students in cheating.

She said students have written exams for their friends and have gotten away with it; the few ones arrested have been punished. They have adopted many methods to cheat in exams without security personnel detecting them.

Another student of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, said a man was caught writing the second semester examination for his girlfriend in 2014.

He said, “The man was arrested cheating during mass communication exams and ironically, he was not even a student of this university. He was taken to a police station and prosecuted. As for the girl in question, I haven’t set my eyes on her again.”

He said students found cheating in exams are made to face disciplinary committees and those found guilty are either expelled or made to repeat a session, depending on the offense, adding that the management does not turn a deaf ear to cases of exams malpractice no matter the status of those involved.

The Vice Chancellor ‎of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Professor Vincent Ado Tenebe, said the university had adopted far reaching measures to tackle unforeseen challenges including exams cheating. He said computer software was being used to detect any case of plagiarism.

In her paper titled Checking Examination Malpractice in Nigerian Schools, Dr. A.O. Oredein, Senior lecturer, Institute of Education, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, said the reasons for examination malpractice “included the low moral standard in schools, candidates fear of failure, lack of confidence in themselves, inadequate preparation, laziness and ‘419’ syndrome that have eaten deep into the fabrics of the society.”

Some university lecturers are of the opinion that inadequate teaching and learning facilities, poor conditions of service of teachers fear of‎ failure by students and admission of unqualified candidates into universities are responsible for examination malpractices.

Parents especially of wards in private and specialized schools, threaten proprietors of withdrawal of children or closure of schools if‎ their children do not make excellent results, he stated.

But Mr. Danladi Idris, an educationist, said that incapacity of some lectures and teachers is one of the major causes of examination malpractice.

He said lecturers hardly finish most of their course outline for an academic semester before giving examinations to the students, in some cases, the “lecturers even go to the extent of giving examinations to the students even in the areas that they did not teach the students for that academic year.”

According to Dr Oredein, the only solution to examination malpractice is that all staff of examination bodies should be well paid.

He said, “Whatever may be the case, examination malpractice has eroded our educational system. It has become an epidemic. Therefore, there is need for all stakeholders to come together and take serious measures to address the situation