WAEC Examination Malpractice

WAEC examination malpractice is a menace that is being tackled by WAEC, fueled by factors including laziness towards studies, family support, and low confidence among students, among other factors. 

There are some hurdles that are being encountered by the West African Examination Board (WAEC), and one of the hurdles is Examination malpractice, sadly.

What is Examination Malpractice?

According to Worldbank, Malpractice involves a deliberate act of wrongdoing, contrary to official examination rules, and is designed to place a candidate at an unfair advantage or disadvantage

Firstly, an examination is a test, which is set up to rate a candidate’s proficiency in a specified field or subject, and malpractice refers to any behavior that is improper, or simply any behavior that cannot be tagged as professional in relation to a field in focus.

So WAEC examination malpractice is the exhibition of behaviors that are not acceptable in a WAEC examination setting, and any behavior that is aimed at influencing a candidate’s results in the examination.

There are reports that say that the menace of WAEC examination malpractice will be a hard nut to crack because it has been generally accepted and promoted by students and their guardians.

This is evident by the influx of students to ‘WAEC special centres’, where examination success is assured. The assurance of passing the examination with flying colours doesn’t lie in the fact that the students will read to merit success, but in the fact that they will cheat and engage in other forms of illegalities in order to pass.

Forms of WAEC Examination Malpractice

1. Impersonation: This is one of the most common forms of examination malpractices in WAEC in recent times. This is a case whereby a candidate employs or allows another individual to take his place in the examination hall, and write the examination on his behalf.  This form of examination malpractice is still succeeding because there is little or no way of checking the impersonating parties and punishing them accordingly. This form of WAEC malpractice should not be tolerated, as it doesn’t say well about the quality of results that are awarded to candidates. Impersonation in the WAEC examination attracts severe penalties, and in the last two years, about 2000 people have been caught in acts of impersonation in WAEC and they were severely punished. This is to show the continual frown of WAEC on impersonation and on all forms of WAEC examination malpractices.
2. Usage of outside materials: This is another common method of examination malpractice in Nigeria. This form of WAEC examination malpractice involves the smuggling, and usage of implicating materials in the WAEC examination halls. This is an alternative that has been created by students who cannot afford to pay an impersonator to write examinations for them. This form of WAEC malpractice involved students bringing materials like textbooks, mobile phones, and jotters into the examination hall, to use as a source of answers; to be able to pass the examination.
3. Recruiting external aid: This is another menace that should be curbed by WAEC. This form of malpractice is kickstarted when the students use in-house personnel as their source of answers, and this malpractice is further encouraged by corrupt supervisors who threaten students with failure, if they fail to comply and pay a stipulated sum of money, to have answers given to them. This doesn’t favour the studious students who may not want to take part in such or any form of examination malpractice. However, WAEC is working on this issue, to ensure that students are not extorted in the examination hall for any reason.
4. Copying in the examination hall: This form of examination malpractice is not restricted to WAEC examination halls. It’s observed in every tier of the educational sector. This form of examination malpractice involves the students trying to copy the work of their classmates, either word for word or paraphrasing, but it doesn’t matter, because spying on your fellow candidate’s work in an examination defeats the reason why the examination is held- to test your ability. 

Causes of WAEC examination malpractice

  There are some factors that affect the menace of examination malpractice in Nigeria. They include:

1. Failure in the educational sector: it’s not new news when it’s said that education in Nigeria has no incentives attached to motivate students to work harder. This is needed not only when students get to their examination class in the preparation for WAEC, but rather they should be encouraged from the early tiers of the educational system, to make them see the need and benefit of doing the right thing. Currently, social programs give out huge incentives just to encourage their participants and increase public interest through its huge grand prize, an example of such a social program is the Big brother Nigeria reality TV show, where the winner may pocket as much as N50m. 
2. Overpopulation in schools: It requires a lot of work and resources, to prepare a large number of students to be able to compete at a top and defining examination like WAEC. So, if candidates are taught in overcrowded schools, where little or no attention is paid to their academic needs, it may lead to poor quality of education being given to them, and will ultimately lead to them being involved in examination malpractice in WAEC, being able to pass.
3. The environment of learning: The environment plays a huge role in causing examination malpractice in WAEC. In the countdown years to WAEC, if a student doesn’t have access to a standard or good learning environment, it may affect his academic qualities. The learning environment of a student in his secondary school years plays a big role in preparing him for the WAEC examination, and when the candidate is prepared for a WAEC examination, the chances of engaging in malpractice are low, compared to a student that is not prepared.
4. Poor parental training: It was mentioned earlier, the roles that parents play in encouraging WAEC examination malpractices. Parents enroll their children into WAEC ‘miracle’ or ‘special’ centres, so that their children can pass with flying colours. What happens at the WAEC ‘miracle’ centres is just widespread examination malpractices, with money paid to the necessary channels, to ensure little or no disturbances from WAEC supervisory bodies. This plays a huge role in causing the continued existence of WAEC examination malpractice.
5. Overrating of certificates: ‘The end justifies the means’ approach that is being adopted by so many students encourages the spread of examination malpractice in WAEC. Nowadays, students don’t want to show what they can do through what they can prove in their WAEC scripts, rather they choose to engage in WAEC examination malpractices that will affect the results. This false quality of WAEC exam participants through examination malpractice may lead to less recognition or underrating of the WAEC certificate.
6. Lack of proper preparation: When a WAEC candidate does not put in the required time and effort to read and prepare for his WAEC examination, it will ultimately lead to examination malpractice in WAEC, as he will resort to that means to be able to scale through.

Frequently asked questions about WAEC examination malpractice

The menace of examination malpractice in WAEC has been a source of worry for the pan-African examination board for a long time. WAEC examination malpractice is carried out through different means like impersonation, and spying on fellow classmates’ work among other ways. 

Several factors have been pinpointed as chief causes of examination malpractice, the factors include the learning environment, low teacher motivation, and lack of proper parental training among other factors.

This menace is continually being tackled by the West African examination board, as any individuals involved are punished to serve as a deterrent to others.

Students are to be encouraged by any means possible, to desist from any form of examination malpractice, not only in the WAEC examination but in any other examination.

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