CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF EXAMINATION MALPRACTICES AMONG JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN NEW EDUBIASE

Abstract

The level of students’ involvement in examination malpractice in Junior High Schools in Ghana has become increasingly worrying, problematic and threatening to the well-being of Ghanaian educational system. However, there seems to be paucity of studies on the causes and effects of examination malpractices among Junior High School students in Ghana and Adansi South District (New Edubiase) of the Ashanti Region of Ghana in particular. This research seeks to bridge this knowledge gap by identifying and discussing the causes and effects of examination malpractices among Junior High School students in New Edubiase. Study methods include the use of questionnaire (open and close ended questions). A total of ninety (90) respondents comprising of sixty (60) students and thirty (30) teachers who took part in this study were randomly and purposively selected. The results indicate that collusion, examination leakages, smuggling of answers scripts and late submission of parcels, sending foreign materials into the examination hall, impersonation, dubbing, writing on items (sheets of papers, handkerchief, erasers, and covers of calculator), writing answers on question papers and exchanging them with others to copy, communicating orally or through gestures during examination and using fake names index numbers, buying examination questions for students and offering money to examination authorities to assist their children and mass cheating are the nature of examination malpractices among Junior High School students in New Edubiase. The study revealed that examination malpractices brings total loss of trust in the educational system, reduced enrolmentof students in school, frequent cancellation of results, discourages good students/candidates from studying hard, derives innocent students’ opportunity for admission, decrease job efficiency, bring dissatisfaction on the part of the candidates, renders the goals of education invalid, examination cheats obtain certificates which they cannot defend, examination malpractice has reduced the quality and standard of education in the country, examination malpractice adversely affects national productivity as the certificates workers possess are not backed with commensurate knowledge, skills and values, examination malpractice makes employers of labour lose confidence in the educational system and the credentials that are paraded by job seekers and lastly examination malpractice leads to high educational wastage as those who cheat to pass examinations at a lower level, achieve very poorly at a higher level.
Keywords: Causes, Effects, Examination, Malpractices, Junior High School, Students, New Edubiase, Ashanti Region, Ghana.