STUDENTS’ FACTORS AND EXAMINATION MALPRACTICE IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN SOUTH-WEST NIGERIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY AND PRACTICE

Abstract

This study investigated the combined and relative effects of six students’ factors (age, gender, peer influence, attitude to examination, attitude to learning and time management) on examination malpractice in public secondary schools in South-West, Nigeria. The participants were two hundred and fifty SSS2 students randomly selected from twelve secondary schools in Southwestern zone of Nigeria. Their ages ranged between 14 and 18years (x = 14.04 and SD = 1.78. Of the sample selected, one hundred and thirty five were boys (135) and one hundred and fifteen were girls (115). A validated instrument, Student Factors Questionnaire (SFQ) was used to collect data for the study using multiple regression for analysis. There was a significant correlation among the six student variables and the dependent variable –examination malpractice (R=0.424; p>0.05). The six variables accounted for the 14.2% of the total variance in the depended measure (R²=0.142) Peer influence (?=0.321; t=3.186; p<0.05), attitude to examination (?=-0.191; t =2.343; p<0.05, time management (?=-0.195; t=2.162; p<0.05) and attitude to learning (?=-0.086; t=2.162; p<0.05) could be used to predict examination malpractice. Results show that examination malpractice cut across age and gender. The result also shows that students’ attitude to peers, examination, learning and time management are the most potent predictors of examination malpractice. Based on the implication of the findings, parents and teachers should help students to develop positive attitude to learning and writing examination through re-orientation of values and reconstruction of students’ attitude to hard work.