Professional Documents
Culture Documents
BY
PSP/SABS/PA/NDI/2016/512
COURSE LECTURER:
MAY, 2017
THE EFFECT OF PERSONALITY AND ANXIETY AS DETERMINING FACTORS IN
STUDENT INVOLVEMENT IN EXAMINATION MISCONDUCT
Introduction
Out of the social need for a trained citizenry emerged education such a need or aspiration is a
universal concept and since education has been identified as the central component to all
development format educational institution has been established for the training of people
different life aspirations. However, challenges are still experienced in the educational sector
ranging from poor infrastructure, facilities, brain drawn and especially the alarming rate of
Even though the issue of examination misconduct is not huge to Nigerians from the America
perspective, statistics has shown that somewhere between 50% to 70% of college students have
been involved in examination misconduct in the year 1964 (William, 1964). National Defense,
United States (1964), report that twenty-four midshipmen were expelled from the US Naval
Academy on April 28 in the worst examination misconduct scandal in the history of the
institution. In 2005, South Korea faced the biggest examination misconduct scandal in its history
whereby about 70% of students who sat for the national college entrance examination were
involved in cheating (Vencat, 2006). Frederick (2009) from China reported that more than 1000
hopeful candidates were caught cheating in the annual civil service examination, he said even
resorted to inserting micro receivers in their ears to receive remote coaching while sitting for the
exams.
In Nigeria, public examination was introduced with the coming of western education though
traditional and Islamic education had their forms of assessment before the advent of western
education. Thus, with the coming of western education and different way to assess students there
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The first publicly reported case of examination malpractice in Nigeria occurred in 1914 when
there was a leakage of question papers in the senior Cambridge Local examination (Samuel,
2003). Ever since, there have been cases of irregularities reported on a yearly basis. But the
outstanding years were 1963, 1967, 1973, 1979, 1985, 1987, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998,
1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 (West African Examination Council, 2004). The major form of
collusion in the examination hall copying, mass or organized cheating involving assistance from
teachers and outsiders and insult or assault on invigilators/supervisors (Coluyeba and Daramola,
advancement and needs to be drastically addressed. Since 1991 to date in Nigeria, examination
cheating can be said to have taken incredible and sophisticated dimension in both secondary and
Alutu and Alutu (2003) noted that examination misconduct is a societal and socially undesirable
behaviour exhibited by students and should be strongly discouraged. It render the objectives of
examination invalid and affect the psycho and integrity of students who are hardworking and
Nigerias education system like any other country has its problems, lapses, controversies and
issues many problems confronts Nigeria educational system and institution. Prominent among
them is the issue of examination malpractice. Public campaigns and enlightenment programmes
examination malpractices has not yield the desired result, not even the introduction of jail terms
for culprits. Whereas, in the past, students tended to hide the acts, now, they advertise them with
reckless abandon student anxiety level has being associated with the high level of examination
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misconduct experienced the country today as student who are more anxious to pass examination
tend to do whatever it takes to pass exams which includes examination malpractice or cheating.
system in Nigeria. In 2012 the result released by JAMB revealed that 27,266 candidates results
for 53 centres were withheld due to examination misconduct as against that of 2011 were 15,160
candidates result were withheld due to examination misconducts. This shows that the level of
examination misconduct is on the increase level (Vanguard, 2012). Similarly, the West African
Examination Council (WAEC) in 2012 withheld the results of 51,878 candidates which represent
16% of registered candidates due to examination misconduct. This trend is also prevalent in
higher institutions for instance; the authorities of the federal university of Jos on August 9, 2012,
expelled 9 of her students for involvement in examination misconduct and so also same issue in
the state polytechnic student were expelled till date just because of examination misconduct.
Examination misconduct has become an order of the day of Nigerians educational system. It is
like a cankerworm that has eaten deep into the fabric of not just educational sectors, but the
society as a whole. This is evident in all levels of education from primary, secondary and tertiary
write exams for a candidate and copying of answer booklet of another candidate in an
examination hall.
Against these backdrops, the need therefore to examine factor that encourage examination
misconduct with a view to eliminating it. This study therefore examines personality and anxiety
The general objective of this study is to examine the effect of personality and anxiety on
examination misconduct among undergraduate. However, the study has the following specific
objectives:
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i) To determine if personality affect examination misconduct among undergraduate
students.
ii) To examine if personality affect examination misconduct among undergraduate
students.
iii) To investigate the interactive effect of personality and anxiety on examination
misconduct.
Research Hypotheses
There is knowledge information that would be obtained from the findings of this research work
after the final page has been completed and they include the following:
i) It will increase the literature in academic research on factors that determine examine
misconduct.
ii) The finding of the study will act as a significant contributor in the general knowledge
The study will investigate the impact of personality and anxiety as a determinant of student
Polytechnic, Jos.
Conclusion
The study seeks to examine the effect of personality and anxiety as determining factors in
students involvement in examination misconduct. This will go a long way is revealing some of
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the reasons why students indulge in examination malpractices. It will also provide information
about personality and examination malpractices; and the need to nurture personality and