But
exam malpractice should not be treated with kid gloves. It is a very dangerous
but silent killer which is threatening our whole academic establishments world over.
The
following are some of the silent but dangerous things which examination
malpractice is always doing to us as students.
Rewards the unworthy
The
greatest problem I have with examination malpractice is that it rewards the
unworthy. Look at it this way; someone studies so hard throughout the whole
semester to commit everything he has been taught into memory so as to pass the
exam with flying colors.
Another person who has been whiling away his/her time
just takes one night, just in a matter of hours, to make some 'microchips' which s/he will later use for cheating in the examination. This person
may also get 'lucky' and get the chance to seat beside and [photo]copy from
those who really prepared well for the exam through serious reading.
At
the end of the day, they both pass. In some cases, this person who even copied
scores even higher after all he was 'quoting' from so
many correct sources!
Some
will call it being smart but the way I will always see it is that it is the
rewarding of the unworthy because if passing examinations is supposed to be
that easy, then why attend lectures, do assignments, hold discussion classes,
carry out researches, seminars and practical experiments or worse still, why
even come to school at all, if we can still pass by doing such an easy thing in
such a sleazy manner?
You
see, exam malpractice has a way of making mockery of hard work and that is
exactly what I will never be comfortable with!
Encourages unseriousness plus laziness
In
line with exam malpractice destroying the need for hard work in our academic
endeavors, it furthers ingrains into the student's™s psyche the need to always
be on the lookout for the easy way out!
The
problem therein is that will surely lead to the making of unserious students
all over because more and more student will learn to embrace the idea of
becoming lazy and they might also come to love it!
But
it doesn't stop there because invariably someone who has internalized the act
of always looking for the easy way out and getting immediate results without
due process and patience will easily become criminally minded because he will
surely discover that the easiest way out is usually the illegal way
which involves doing criminal deeds.
And
that does not speak so well for the future to come.
Does not encourage mental development
Yes.
Because exam malpractice is usually working hand in hand with being lazy, it
has a way on also encouraging mental laziness which seriously hinders mental
development.
This
is one of the reasons why I say students should desist from exam malpractice
because poor mental development will not encourage us as students to become
inventors, great thinkers, great achievers and great leaders. Examination
malpractice can easily deny us of making full use of our mental powers!
It
will rather encourage us to become ignorant people with 'follow-follow' mentality i.e. people who cannot think for themselves and also people
who are always dependent.
And
I guess you already have an idea on what will always happen when the blind is
leading the blind?
Encourages indiscipline
Of
course it encourages indiscipline because any student who is bent on cheating
is always ready to break the set rules or code of conduct.
He
will always seek for and in some cases, might also become an expert in finding
the ways to create loop holes in the existing laws such that he will come out
successful after s/he must have cheated in the exams.
Oh!
What a waste of talent!
As
an undisciplined character, he will always like it if there is distraction in
the examination such that he will have the opportunity to cheat not minding
that such distractions can actually cause problems for others who might have
prepared in the right way for the same exam. He might also create that very
distraction himself not minding that the whole exam might even be cancelled as
a result of that.
He
is also ready to lie about the whole thing, if and when, caught either by
trying to justifying what s/he did or by trying to cast the blame unto someone
else!
No
wonder indiscipline is always characterized by selfishness, irresponsibility,
arrogance and chronic lying!
Encourages lack of specialization
Exam
malpractice has a way of masking out the real specialists in any field where
specialization is a prerequisite.
Since
it can easily make anyone to 'pass', it
becomes imperative that in areas or companies where specialization is highly
needed, there must be a second test.
This
can become a huge cost and a very daunting task fraught with confusion for any
company or individual that is looking for someone to recruit.
Puts everyone in bad light
Similar
to the case of exam malpractice being one of the major causes of lack of
specialization, there is even a greater problem of it putting everyone else in
a very bad light.
It
is always easy for us as people to generalize and once there is an established
case of examination malpractice in one or two places, it is always easier to
assume that everybody cheated.
This
is one of the reasons why such malpractices have been hard to root out because
it is not always easy to differentiate between those that cheated and those
that did not.
No
wonder, it is always easier for examination bodies like JAMB or WAEC to just
cancel the whole center rather than seek out those who were actually involved
to be punished.
Exam
malpractice is also responsible for the fact that certificates are no longer
valued that much as it becomes a mere paper for title and status sake where it
should have been a symbol showing that someone is adequately qualified in that
very field.
This
could be the reason why so many parents and guardians are no longer all that
excited when their children pass in the exams because they might subconsciously
believe that their wards [might have] also cheated [but was just only lucky
enough not to have been caught!]
I
have witnessed a very awkward situation where a very jubilant student was told
to pipe down by his own father in the presence of his fellow students because
his success is nothing but a clear indication that he was the best cheat in
that very exam!
Don't ever blame the parents for thinking in this way because they might be right
because the ugly truth is that in some cases, some parents are known to also
help their children cheat in those exams either by providing them with the necessary
financial means to cheat successfully or by turning a blind eye to such
tendencies.
Too
bad.
Destroys the prospects of posterity
I
once had the opportunity to invigilate a mathematics examination and I was
shocked with what I saw.
The
candidates were really having a hard time trying to solve the questions. Most
of them kept on complaining that the questions were so difficult while some
others even suggested that I should try and help them to pass, by hook or
crook!
Their
helplessness and desperation was so vivid. This prompted me to take a look at
the question to see for myself if the examiners were really as wicked as some
of the students have already confirmed.
I
was really flabbergasted with what I saw. It was a big shock when I discovered
that I knew the answers to at least 60% of the questions they were asked some
seven years ago! Now you tell me, is 60% not a pass mark?
If
I could solve 60% of the questions seven years back without cheating or needing
any form of external help, why are these students complaining that they
couldn't do so now? My biggest question was whether we are now going back or
going forward? Is this progress or stagnancy or even retrogression which was
the most likely answer?
And
when I thought about what these students are going to teach their own students
who unfortunately happens, to be my own children, my fears worsened and I felt
a very great concern for posterity to come.
All
thanks to examination malpractice!
Wastes time and money
If
you are an ergonomics engineer like myself,
you will agree with me that the act or practice of wasting resources is always
consider a serious crime of its own.
And
the worst resources you can ever waste in this world is your time and money
which is why I frown at exam malpractice because that is exactly what it wastes
most.
It
can waste time because instead of a student concentrating on just how to pass
with flying colors through hard work and honest labor, you find a student
plotting on ways to cheat the invigilators, effective ways to distract and
disturb others, how to seat in a very comfortable location that will guarantee
success, how and where to buy the answers if the examination questions leaked,
how to effectively mask answers as body tattoos and also how to copy the
answers on papers and make those papers become even smaller than microchips.
Some
other students have also taken such practices even to greater scientific
heights through the use of their mobile phones and the internet!
The
female students might even take it further in trying to see how to comfortably
hide such 'microchips' in their bras and other 'hidden' places where they cannot be easily found, reached or touched!
You
see what I am trying to say?
Of
course, examination malpractice requires a lot of work and it takes a very
smart, clever or resourceful person to cheat successfully but then no matter
how you look at it, at the end of the day, it is still negative work!
It
is negative work because all it will take for this person who has prepared so
well to cheat to fail in the exam could be as simple as denying him/her the use
of their mobile phones, changing the seating arrangement or exam venues and
also changing the format of the examination and you will find a desperate and
drowning student, completely destabilized and clutching on thin air just to
survive even though there is no river around!
Furthermore,
if such exams are cancelled, students might be asked to come to do the exam
another time and in some cases, they might also have to make a second payment
for them to seat for those papers once more which is a complete waste of time
and money and in some cases, lives have also been lost in situations where the
students might need to travel to their exam centers and they get involved in
road accidents!
Similarly,
the price that some students will have to pay to those who will sit in for
those exams as mercenaries, to those who will help them sneak out the question
papers in and outside the examination hall, to those who will help them sneak
out their answer scripts for them to rewrite the whole thing again, to those
who will invigilate them by looking the other way etc. can
only be better
imagined than experienced!
Encourages mediocrity
Exam
malpractice can cause us as students to choose mediocrity because inasmuch as
such students want to pass, they will not like to excel to the extent that will
start drawing attention to them. They would never like to be called upon to
defend their grades or marks so they comfortably hide and pass off as being
amongst average students!
But
Mediocrity should never be the characteristic of any student or anybody who
really wants to score high!
This
is because mediocrity will never allow your own voice to be heard. It will not
allow your sun to shine as it will always keep you suppressed because your
whole individuality will be completely lost in the sea of teeming mediocre lies.
Mediocrity
might be attractive because many people love identifying with the majority
which is said carries the votes, and since mediocrity helps us to hide in the
crowd, it can make us feel powerful as well as unidentifiable but then come to
think of it, Â that is exactly the same problem it creates.
End up having a fake certificate
In
a certificate minded society like the Nigerian society, exam malpractice will
always be a very difficult case to curtail or handle. This is simply because as
more and more continue to buy into that idea that certificate is everything,
you will agree with me that there will always be an increasing case of fraudulent
certificates or forgeries.
And
you will agree with me that for someone who has come to like to idea of
cheating his or her way out, forging certificates is no big deal. It is just
one of those things. It's just another feather in his cap!
Another
unseen problem there is that if our people continue to scramble for
certificates in the manner we are going about it, the laws of demand and supply
will finally set in thus rendering most of our certificates worthless!
This
is already happening.
End up being rusticated
One
of the reasons for rusticating students from any institution of learning is
when any case of exam malpractice is established against the student.
Funny
enough, many students don't even know the risk they are running by engaging
in such acts either because so many are involved or simply because think or
know there will always be someone, like a godfather or something like that, who
will definitely come out to defend them.
Besides
being rusticated from school, it will still be a noteworthy point if I still
remind us as students that examination malpractices is still a very punishable
criminal offense which can land us in jail.
Establishes corruption
Why
not? Examination malpractice is corruption on its own but then it establishes
general corruption as it is always punching holes in our credibility and
creating doubts in our capabilities.
The
saying that a pot does not call a kettle black can only be used in clear cases
of established malpractice because if we both knew that we cheated, the best
thing to do is to keep quiet and continue to carry-on and act as if nothing
really happened after all we already know that those who live in glasshouses
should never throw stones.
And
that my friend is the purest definition of corruption.
Last Word
I
know that some students including some bright students, even after reading
this, will still want to believe that they need to cheat in their examinations
to pass.
Their
reasons could not be further from:
1. The
fact that it is the only way they know and it has been working for them in the
past.
2. Others
are [also] doing it.
3. It
will only be for the last time. I won't [want to] do it again!
4. I
just want to pass this exam.
5. There
is no time to study properly for this particular paper.
6. This
subject is so vast as well as difficult. I can't read and understand the
whole thing by myself.
7. Failure
is not my portion. All I have to do is just to "shine" my eyes and do
whatever it takes.
8. This
lecturer is wicked. He normally sets questions on what he did not teach.
9. I
just want to cross the pass mark.
10.Well, in a way, cheating
in the exam can be fun, if you are not caught etc...
Whatever
your reasoning are, most especially if you are amongst those who think they
have to cheat because the papers are so difficult and the only way out is by
cheating, I will still like to leave you with this encouraging thought on a
saying I heard from somewhere just to remind you that the ability of you
passing or failing an exam is just a matter of your perception: Lord,
if you make it difficult [to pass]; please don’t make it impossible!
Thanks sir!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the advice.
ReplyDelete