(+234)07060722008 
sales@graciousnaija.com
ABSTRACT
The study examined how truancy affects examination malpractices among
senior secondary school students in Ifako Ijaiye Local Government Area of Lagos
State. The study went further to investigate the acts that constitutes truancy
and examination malpractices among senior secondary schools students in Lagos
State, Nigeria, the school and personal related factors responsible for truancy
among senior secondary school students in Lagos State, Nigeria, the effects of
truancy on examination malpractices in senior secondary schools in the State
and the measures currently taken to discourage and prevent truancy and
examination malpractices among senior secondary school students in the State.
Secondary data provided at Ijaiye Ojokoro Senior High School helped to
see the extent of truancy among the senior secondary school students through
the 2014/2015 academic sessions’ attendance register and the academic
performance of the selected truants were accessed from the broad sheet for the
2014/2015 academic session.
Staying out of school without permission, absenteeism from school for
more than ten times, engagement of students in anti – social behaviours,
skipping lessons even while in school missing school because of
undone assignments and staying out of classroom can lead students into bad
association were all statements the respondents agreed with en masse as acts
that constitutes truancy.
Learner’s fear of a threatening situation at school can make him play
truancy (56.5%), students’ inability to cope with academic expectations
and demands (93.5%), a child can decide to absent himself from school so as to
avoid being bullied/threatened by older students (67.7%), too much
discipline/punishments by teachers can lead a student into truant behaviour
(75.8%), a child can become a truant through his/her choice of friends (95.2%),
several home factors may contribute to the truant behaviour of students
(91.9%), insufficient and dilapidated physical facilities such as classrooms,
furniture and other conveniences (72.6%) of the respondents agreed
that poor educator – learner relationship (69.4%), teaching or instructional
approach (56.5%) and shyness of repeaters to sit in classroom with younger
students (98.45%) contributed immensely to truancy among the senior secondary
school students.
Periodic counselling approach, using a variety of instructional
approach, effective monitoring and recording of students’ attendance, building
learners resiliency, acting fast on learners absence from
school, prosecuting parents of truants and blacklisting of the
affected examination centres showed positive relationship with
staying out of school without permission; therefore the aforementioned measures
shall be very effective in the reduction of truancy which will consequently
reduce the incidences of examination malpractices among the senior secondary
school students in Ifako Ijaiye Local Government Area of Lagos State.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1Background to the Study
Truancy is one of the major antisocial discipline
problems among secondary school students in Nigeria. The concept and acts of
indiscipline have received a lot of attention by researchers. Peck opined that
the various behavioural disorders like stealing, violence, drug abuse,
examination malpractice, sexual abuse and truancy have so undermined effective
teaching-learning processes that some teachers have become helpless and
disorganized in their task of impacting knowledge to the learners (Peck, 2002).
In
recent times, education has been recognized globally as one of the universal
ways of survival and improvement of the well-being of individuals and society.
The advent of formal education is considered as the foundation for national
development as well as the surest way of making of life long achievements. For
these reasons, families and citizens especially the youth and children now pay
more attention to education. (Ogbonna et.al, 2013).
However,
the effort invested by the federal government of Nigeria on education had over
the years proven a fruitful and promising reward to national development posing
a lively hope for the better in the immediate future. It is of no doubt that
several factors have posed relentless restriction to the trend of the rapid
development in education; for which truancy in both student and teachers in
primary and secondary schools has been a cankerworm to education. This has
raised several questions to the quality of education and educational
administration in Nigerian Secondary Schools. (Ogbonna et.al, 2013).
According
to Huzinga and Thornberry (2000), Truancy is defined as having an unexcused
absence from school for at least three school days during five-day school week.
Moreover, Salford City Counsel Report (2008) defined Truancy as the act when a
child, who is believed to have been at school, fails to attend school classes
without the permission or awareness of the parents or the school authority
concerned. Truancy is an international unauthorized absence from school
activities. Echebiwe (2009) defined Truancy as a situation when a
child under sixteen years of age who is registered at school fails to attend
classes without prior formal permission from the parent or school authority.
Not only do these issues present immediate concerns, there are also
ramifications of these issues that can affect a person later in adulthood.
Therefore,
Truancy is the practice of staying away from school without permission(Sydney, 2013). A child who engages in this
act is therefore referred to as a Truant. This implies that every child is
expected to be in school and must be present in school and class attendance
regularly unless when a child is duly permitted to be absent in respect to
health reasons or otherwise stated. (Ogbonna et.al, 2013).
However,
children who engage in Truancy might have found life in classrooms dull, boring
and uninteresting. Also, they must have found greater pleasure and interest in
activities outside the school and the classroom environment. Such children usually
leave their homes giving everybody the impression that they have gone to
school, but stopped on the way side to participate in what they like to enjoy
most. This they do until it is time for school dismissal and they return home.
Some others are caught playing round the street with other Truants, engaging in
gambling and loitering round the school premises. This is because some Truants
get scared of some unfriendly treatment from teachers, unpleasant encounters
during classroom work, unnecessary harassment and embarrassment by the senior
students. These lead to loss of interest in academics in the classroom by the
student.
Some
Truants engage in Truancy because of the feeling of inferiority among their
classmates, laziness to class work, challenges of classroom test and
assignments, verbal abuses and threats of classroom instructors, school phobia,
anxiety, bullying, lack of skills needed to perform well at school, lack of
priority to education and academics (Kirk et.al, 2013). The school has also been identified
as a strong factor responsible for truancy. Adewole reported that breakdown of
communication, student over population, shortage of teachers, undue application
of corporal punishment as well as peer influence at school are strongly
associated with truancy.
Furthermore,
the impact of truancy is very obvious and usually a negative one on Truants’
present and future life in education. Truancy results in loss of intellectual
development and lack of improvement of individual. Also, it leads to poor academic
performance at the end of the school periods, school terms and school year.
Truancy as a threat to academic performances of the student is believed to
reduce the quality of education the child receives. It reduces the standard of
academic achievement of a child. It leads to the fall of educational standard
in schools. It increases the rate of examination malpractices and poor
examination results of both internal and external examinations. Truancy is also
a factor that contributes to idleness, joblessness, unemployment and
underemployment of most adults today, just because they engaged in the act of
Truancy during their school days. (Ogbonna, et. al, 2013). In past
research, truancy has been found to be related to various types of delinquency,
including gang activity, alcohol and drug abuse, serious property crimes and
examination malpractices (Baker, et. al 2001).
Examination
malpractices in all its form is a major social problem in Nigeria. In the
last two decades the country witnessed an alarming rate of increase in
examination misconducts especially at the secondary school level. Evidences
abound of increasing rate of examination malpractices by students, teachers and
parents. Examination malpractice has become so widespread that there is
virtually no examination anywhere at all levels and even outside the formal
school system that it does not take place. Every examination season witnesses
the emergence of new and clever ways of cheating. (Jimoh, 2009).
Unfortunately, the process of examination in Nigeria secondary schools
has become a “contemporary shame” (Nwadiani, 2005). This is because of the
phenomenon of examination malpractice that has become endemic in the
educational system. The examination Malpractice Act (1999) explains examination
malpractice as any act of omission or commission by a person who in
anticipation of, before, during or after any examination fraudulently secured
any unfair advantage for him/ herself or any other person in such a manner that
contravenes the rules and regulations to the extent of undermining the
validity, reliability, authenticity of the examination and ultimately the
integrity of the certificates issued. Oluyeba and Daramola (cited in Alutu and
Aluede, 2006) remarked that examination malpractice is any irregular behaviour
exhibited by a candidate or anybody charged with the conduct of examination
before, during or after the examination that contravenes the rules and
regulations governing the conduct of such examination.
Nigeria’s education system is largely certificate oriented. So much
value and emphasis are placed on certificates instead of knowledge, skills and
competence. According to Nwandiani (2005), the market place value and reward
for the level and face value quality of certificates promote tendencies for and
acts of cheating in the process of certification. Many school leavers and
dropouts have certificates without knowledge and skills. Most of the social
maladies like manufacture and sale of fake drugs by pharmacists, collapse of
buildings, massive fraud in banks and miscarriage of justice are consequences
of over emphasis and value on certificates. And if this trend is allowed to
continue, the country will end up with doctors who cannot differentiate between
vein and artery, lawyers who cannot differentiate between an accused person and
the complainant and teachers who may not be able to spell the names of their
schools correctly (Orbih, 2006). It is high time the nation took certificates
no more as passports to jobs or higher education; more emphasis should be
placed on the competence and skill acquisition. The implication of this is that
assessment of students should no longer be based on one almighty examination;
rather, it should be continuous, from the very first day at school to the very
last day. Continuous Assessment should be properly implemented. In addition,
there should be re-orientation in the value system of the country. (Jimoh
2009).
The phenomenon of examination malpractice seems to be
aggravated by the large scale and shameful involvement of dishonest and greedy
teachers, school heads, parents and all those who take part in examination
administration. The prominence assumed by this malady in the school system has
become a source of concern to stakeholders in the education industry. Every
examination season witnesses new and ingenious methods of cheating. The
examination process has become endangered to the extent that certification has
almost lost its credibility in the country. Certificates no longer seem to
reflect skill and competence. Accusing fingers have been pointed at teachers,
school heads, parents, students, examination officials and even security agents
as those responsible for examination malpractice in the school system. (Ijaiya,
1998).
Common
observations in the State show that examination malpractices occur in both
public and private secondary schools. Although some researchers argued that
examination malpractices occur at a high rate in public schools (Baiyelo, 2004;
Daniel, 2005), other researchers (Ijaiya, 1998; Igwe, 2004) were of the view
that examination malpractices occur at a high rate in private schools. None of
these researchers have been able to identify whether or not examination
malpractices was at a higher rate in public schools than in private schools.
The argument therefore is, are public secondary schools more involved in
examination malpractices than private schools in the State? In the past two
decades, common observation in the school system showed that public schools
were engaged in examination malpractices at a high rate while private schools
were model schools (Aghenta, 2000; Adeyegbe, 2002). These days, it is common to
find students who failed the senior secondary certificate examination in public
schools going to retake the examination in private schools and at the same time
passing the examination with credits and distinctions in such schools. It seems
that the need to have good results in public examinations and advertise their
schools to
prospective students in the wake of
money making appears to have led many private schools to be involved in
examination malpractices. (Adeyemi, 2010)
1.2
Statement of the Problem
For
a while now, the school structure has been faced by a number of hitches. These
hitches affects classroom instruction, school administration and the overall
performance of students. It affects academic performance both in internally and
externally conducted examinations. Among these problems are truancy, bullying,
fighting, rape and, cultism that have affected the teaching - learning process
adversely and made the learning environment an uninteresting place to both the
teacher and the students. (Ogbonna et.al). The persistent occurrence of examination malpractices
has been a major concern to educationists (Aghenta, 2000; Ige, 2002). Knowing
the importance of examinations in the educational system of the State, the
instances of malpractices during examinations have been identified (Cromwell,
2000; Adeyegbe, 2002). Despite the high premium placed on examinations by the
National Policy on Education (FGN, 2004), it seems that examination
malpractices have not been properly addressed in Lagos State, Nigeria. Common
observations have shown that there are mass cheatings in public examinations in
the State. Nothing concrete has been done to reduce the problem except the
cancellation of results for a particular centre or the withholding of results
in certain subjects. (Adeyemi, 2010). Therefore, it
is the concern of this work to look into how truancy among several factors
affects examination malpractices among senior secondary school students in
Lagos State (A case study of Ifako – Ijaye Local Government Area of Lagos
State).
1.3
i Research Questions
The following research questions were addressed in the study.
a. What
acts constitutes truancy and examination malpractices among senior secondary
schools students in Lagos
State, Nigeria?
b. What
are the school and personal related factors responsible for truancy among
senior secondary school students in Lagos State, Nigeria?
c. What
are the effects of truancy on examination malpractices in senior secondary
schools in the State?
d. What are
the measures currently taken to discourage and prevent truancy and examination
malpractices among senior secondary school students in the State?
Research
Hypotheses
1. There
is no significant relationship between truancy and examination malpractices
amongsenior secondary schools students in Lagos State.
2. There
is no significant relationship between school related and personal related
factors responsible for truancy among senior secondary school students.
3. There
is no significant difference between examination malpractices and truancy among
senior secondary school students in Lagos State.
4. There
is no significant difference between measures currently taken to discourage and
prevent truancy and examination malpractices among senior secondary school
students in Lagos State.
1.4 Purpose
of the study
The main purpose of this research work was to investigate how truancy
affects examination malpractices among senior secondary school students in
Ifako-Ijaiye Local Government Area of Lagos State.
However, the
specific purposes were to:
a. identify
reasons why senior secondary school students engage themselves in truancy
b. investigate factors
responsible for truancy among senior secondary school students
c. find
out effects of truancy on examination malpractices among the senior secondary
school students
d. suggest
possible solution to truancy and examination malpractices among senior
secondary school students
1.5
Significance of the Study
Improving
student attendance and truancy prevention have always been areas of concern for
educators, as well as, community members, and legislators. Students who are not
in school cannot learn, and frequently drop out. Truant students often engage
in high-risk behaviors such as examination malpractices which eventually
entangle them in the juvenile justice system (Jay and Mary, 2005). The seriousness of examination
malpractice and its widespread manifestation have received attention in
research. It has generated both public and private discussions Ijaiya, (1998);
Sooze, (2004)). The Exam Ethics Project (EEP), led by Ike Onyechere, is
currently leading a campaign against examination malpractices. Various bodies
have also come up with policies on examination malpractices. The Lagos State
Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC) has also organized a public
relations workshop to sensitize the public on the evils of examination
malpractices. Topics covered included the causes of examination malpractices
and other public offences in Nigeria and factors motivating students to go into
cheating in examinations among others (Ozor), 2004).
Therefore,
the government, curricular planners, school administrators, teachers, students
and other stakeholders in the educational field, should work collaboratively to
fight the menace of truancy as it helps to foster examination
malpractices among secondary schools particularly those in senior secondary
schools and in our tertiary institutions.
1.6 Scope of
the study
Attempt was made by this study to
unveil how truancy affects examination malpractices among secondary school
students in Lagos State. The proposed area of study is Ifako-Ijaiye Local
Government of Lagos where secondary school students shall be used as
respondents to elicit information about truancy and its effect on examination
malpractices among secondary school students of the afore mentioned location.
1.7
Definition of Terms
The
following terms operationally defined as follows;
Truancy: this refers to the absence of a
child from school without permission.
Truant Student: students
who have more than 10 unexcused/unverified absences in an academic School year.
Examination: an exercise designed to
evaluate progress, test qualification or knowledge. It can also be referred to
as a formal interrogation that seeks to test ability in various ways. Examination
can be written, oral or practical.
Malpractices: this is simply a dereliction
(intentional neglect) of professional duty.
Examination
Malpractices: is any act
of omission or commission by a person who in anticipation of, before, during or
after any examination fraudulently secured any unfair advantage for him/
herself or any other person in such a manner that contravenes the rules and
regulations to the extent of undermining the validity, reliability,
authenticity of the examination and ultimately the integrity of the
certificates issued.
TOPIC: HOW TRUANCY AFFECTS EXAMINATION MALPRACTICES AMONG SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS
Format: MS Word
Chapters: 1 - 5
Delivery: Email
Delivery: Email
Number of Pages: 65
Price: 3000 NGN
In Stock
No comments:
Post a Comment
Add Comment