Students perception of examination malpractice in rivers state university of education port Harcourt

摘要

Examination remains the only way of testing a person's ability and the only way through which certificates are issued at the end of an educational programme or training. The importance attached to certificate in Nigeria has prompted most students to engage in examination malpractice to get a certificate, perhaps a meal ticket. Many students and even parents do not seem to see what is wrong in examination malpractices and this is a big hindrance even to its eradication. There is need to investigate students' attitude to this national menace and subsequently find means of combating the problem. The study is therefore set out to examine students' perception of examination malpractice in Rivers State University of Education Port Harcourt. This research is descriptive survey. The study comprises of three hundred (300) students. Simple random sampling was used to select two departments from the faculty of humanities, Business Education and faculty of natural and applied science. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select a sample of one hundred and fifty (150) students each from the selected departments in year 2 and year 3. Four research questions were answered and two hypotheses were tested. A questionnaire tagged Examination malpractice questionnaire (ENQ) (0.87) was used to collect data from students. The instrument was subjected to validity and reliability test and the data collected were analyzed using frequency counts, percentages, Students-Test and Analysis of variance (ANOVA). The result of the study shows that the students of Rivers State of Education perceived examination malpractice as an antisocial behaviour, and in-preparation, lack of confidence. laziness among others are factors contributing to examination malpractices. In order to combat examination malpractice, less emphasis should be placed in certificate. and parents should be counseled not to mount pressure on their wards to study the courses oftheir interest.