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INNOVATION STRATEGIES FOR CURBING EXAMINATION 

MALPRACTICE IN PUBLIC EXAMINATIONS IN NIGERIA 

 

OWO EMMANUEL CHINONSO  

  E-mail: emmanelsonco@gmail.com  

   Department of Council Matter,  

Registry Division    

 

 

Abstract  

Examination occupies a very strategic position in our lives especially in education sector. 

Teachers rely on them for a comprehensive evaluation of their students to decide whether 

a student merits being promoted to another level. Despite the strategic importance of 

examination, the integrity and credibility of public examinations have been greatly 

eroded and tarnished with increasing incidence of examination malpractice. This paper 

defined the concept of examination malpractice, trends in examination malpractice in 

Nigeria, forms of examination malpractice and innovation strategies to curb examination 

malpractice in Nigeria. Finally, while emphasizing the urgent need for institutions to 

embrace integrity on a sustainable basis, the paper x-rayed what the stakeholders should 

do to remedy the odious and unacceptable act of examination malpractices. 

 

Introduction 
Sustainable development requires the availability of competent  and  committed  human 

resources. Using education as a tool, the government hopes to  produce manpower that 

will serve in  different capacities and contribute positively to the nation’s socio-economic 

and political development. In Nigeria, achievements at any level of education are 

crowned with certification for those who successfully completed the course of study with 

good academic records. Thus, at the end of secondary school education, students are 

expected to sit for public examinations such as the West African Senior School 

Certificate Examinations (WASSCE), conducted by West African Examination Council 

(WAEC), Senior School Certificate (SSCE), conducted by National Examination 

Council (NECO), the National Technical and Business Certificate Examinations 

(NTCE/NBCE), also conducted by the National Business and Technical Examinations 

Board (NABTEB). In addition, there are various certificate examinations conducted by 

the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) for admission into Universities, 

Polytechnics and Colleges of Education. Examinations occupy a very strategic position 

in our lives (educational and industrial) today. Teachers and counsellors rely on them for 

a comprehensive evaluation of their students and clients. To decide whether a student 

merits being promoted to another class, a series of achievement tests that will eventually 

culminate in a well - founded decision has to be given. In industrial setting, experts in 

human relations and employment bureaux utilise tests in reaching a decision as to the 

mailto:emmanelsonco@gmail.com


 

 

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employability of an individual applicant. Despite the strategic importance of examination 

or test taking for diagnostic, placement, classification and quality control in Nigerian 

institutions, the integrity and credibility of public examinations have been greatly eroded 

and corrupted with increasing incidence of examination malpractice. Olagboye 2014, 

lamented that, the situation appears so bad that many Nigerians and interested 

stakeholders including employers of labour have almost lost confidence in the values of 

examinations and their results. In a study conducted by Arijesuyc 2010, he warned that 

Government and major stakeholders should feel sufficiently concerned because of the 

threat of examination malpractice to the educational system and national development. 

He further noted that, the majority, scope and sophistication of examination malpractice 

in the country, has rendered the products, and credentials of the schools doubtful. 

Each year billions of Naira is lost by parents and governments when examination bodies 

cancelled hundreds of thousands of results as a result of examination irregularities. 

Describing the trend which examination malpractice has taken since the last decade, 

Arijesuyo 2010 observed that Examination malpractice had become a well-organized 

business in which supervisors/invigilators of examination subject teachers and even 

school authorities and their host communities have played prominent roles. It is no longer 

news that invigilators are often beaten up by desperate students who accuse such 

invigilators of standing in their way to cheat. Ukoha (2017) reported that some host 

communities in Nigeria have chased away invigilators considered to be uncooperative 

during examinations all in the name of securing key to success for their wards. From the 

foregoing therefore, one may conclude that various group of people partakes in 

encouraging examination malpractices. Most of the time, the family, the school and the 

society serve as reinforcers that promote anti-social behaviours of examination 

malpractice. This paper therefore examines the concept of examination malpractice, 

trends in examination malpractices in Nigeria, forms of examination malpractice and 

innovation strategies to curb examination malpractice in pubic examinations.  

 

Meaning of Examination Malpractice 
Examination malpractice is any illegal act committed by a student single handled or in 

collaboration with others like fellow students, parents, teachers, supervisors, invigilators, 

printers and anybody or group of people before, during or after examinations in order to 

obtain undeserved marks or grades (Adesina, 2015). The means of perpetrating this 

illegal act may range from bringing in un- authorized materials to the examination hall, 

disrupting the conduct of examinations, buying examination papers, changing of grades 

after examination and impersonation to using money or candidate’s body to earn marks. 

Examination malpractices constitute one of the greatest problems that have generated a 

lot of discussions among Nigerians because it threatens the very foundation of the 

educational system. Examination as an instrument for decision-making, is always prone 

to fear and anxiety. Many examinees would want to pass the examination by all means. 

Also, many school authorities and parents would want to explore means of getting good 



 

 

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grades for their students and children. Hence, they resort to different forms of 

malpractices before, during and after examinations. According to Adesira 2015, 

examination malpractices include leaking out questions to students, giraffing and 

smuggling of material into examination hall. Others are deliberate extension of time by 

supervisors and invigilators, change of scores, buying and selling of examination grades, 

question papers and prepared answers, and trading sex for question papers, marks and 

grades. Also, Ekukugho 2011, identified impersonation, collusion between candidates, 

collusion between candidates and officials, assault and intimidation, mass cheating, 

teacher-student affair, bribery, spying, submission of multiple scripts, use of coded or 

sign language, multiple entry for the same examination among others, as different  

forms of malpractices in Nigeria. 

 

Trends in Examination Malpractices in Nigeria 
The phenomenon of examination malpractice is not new in Nigeria and indeed all over 

the world. In Nigeria, the history of examination malpractices could be traced back to the 

colonial days when the “Nigerian Chronicle” of January 9, 1912 widely reported how the 

questions of Senior Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate leaked (Fasasi, 2018).  

After independence, there was hardly any year when there was no examination 

malpractice recorded by the leading examining bodies in Nigeria. Adesina, 2015 reported 

incidences of examinations leakages in West African Examination Council (WAEC) 

papers in 1963, 1967, 1971, 1977 and 1981 as a result of which administrative panels of 

enquiry were set up. The Federal Government panel of enquiry was set up to investigate 

the 1977 examination leakage; the panel recommended as follows; “sanctions for WAEC 

officials who were involved in the malpractice, introduction and use of continuous 

assessment as a factor for award of certificate and shedding of WAEC workload and the 

establishment of new examination bodies” (Adesina, 2015). Consequently, new 

examination bodies were established. These were Joint Admission and Matriculation 

Board (JAMB) established in 1978 now renamed Unified Tertiary Matriculation 

Examination (UTME) in 2010 to conduct matriculation examinations for admission into 

universities, polytechnics and colleges of education; National Business and Technical 

Examination Board (NABTEB) established in 1992 to conduct business and technical 

examinations; National Board for Educational Measurement (NBEM) established in 

1992 and changed to National Examination Council (NECO) in 1999 to conduct school 

certificate examination (Arijesuyo, 2010). As a result of the alarming and worrisome 

trends in the figures and statistics of examination fraud given by the leading examination 

bodies in respect of post- primary public exit examinations in recent years, and the 

attendance crises on the country’s educational system, a number of legislative and 

administrative promulgation were enacted by the Federal government between 1984 and 

2000.   The Federal Government’s promulgation of Decree 20 in 1984, which stipulated 

a 21-year jail term for those found guilty of examination malpractice. Also, there was 

decree 33 of 1999 stipulating imprisonment for a term up to five years or fine of N50, 



 

 

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000.00 to N100,000.00 for any person convicted of examination malpractice (Arijesuyo; 

2010). In spite of these measures, the menace continued to occur in virtually all public 

and institutionally organized examinations and the situation appears to have defied 

recommended solutions. Despite all the efforts of the government, examining bodies and 

other major stakeholders in the nation’s educational industry at curbing the problem of 

examination malpractices, it has remained persistent and intractable. The  West African 

Examination Council (WAEC) annual statistical report of examination malpractice for 

the WAEC/SSCE post-primary exit examinations between 2000 and 2010 indicated that 

781,019 (8.25%) of 9,465,978 candidates who sat for WASSCE were either withheld or 

cancelled during the period as a result of examination malpractice. The report further 

showed that the national Examination Malpractice Index (EMI) has remained persistently 

high ranging between 5.47 and 12.87 during the period surveyed. This means that of 

every 100 students who wrote WAEC between the period of 2000 and 2010 in Nigeria, 

at least 8 of them were involved in examination malpractice. Arising from the above 

considerations and coupled with the commitment of Federal Government to implement 

the decisions reached at its summit on “Confronting the scourge of examination 

malpractice: Threat to the Nigerian Educational system”, held between 21st and 22nd of 

August 2006, the Federal Ministry of Education in 2007 blacklisted and derecognized 

324 secondary schools across the nation as centres for conducting public examinations 

from 2007 to 2010. In order to further explain the sophistication of examination 

malpractices in Nigeria, JAMB’s public relations officer confirmed in 2007, that two 

candidates were caught during the 16 May, 2007 University Matriculation Examinations 

(UME) having received text messages on their phones and the text messages received 

were seen to contain information relevant to the examination that was in progress. Such 

problems led to the resolve by the Nigerian Universities to conduct post-UME 

examinations to further screen the candidates before admission since they doubt the 

validity of the UME scores of the prospective students. Similarly, available record from 

the National Examination Council (NECO) indicates that 6,465 cases of examination 

malpractice were recorded in the 2020 Senior School Certificate (NECO) Examination, 

whereas in 2019, 17,004 cases were recorded (Premium Times May 6, 2021). From the 

report above, it could be concluded that this national problem which started as a mustard 

seed in form of mere cheating in early 60’s to collision in the 70’s, smuggling in of scripts 

into the hall in the 80’s and later metamorphosed to impersonation, and hiring of 

contractors in the 90’s has today grown to become an organised crime among the 

stakeholders. It is now like a fig tree. And the problem is still  

pending in the Nigerian society. 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

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Forms of Examination Malpractice 

1. Impersonation: Impersonation is the hiring of touts to write examination by 

appearing in the halls as the genuine candidates. Atonka (2010), stated that it 

involves male candidates sitting in for girls and verse versa in some sensitive papers, 

twins writing examinations for each other in connivance with the school examination 

officers/invigilators or supervisors and other examination officials.  

2. Collusion: This arises when an assigned invigilator or supervisor is receiving or 

giving assistance to candidates in the examination hail for gratification. 

3. Examination leakages: This is a situation where question papers are seen by 

candidates prior to the writing of the examinations and are traceable to the printing 

press or persons connected with the custody of the question papers. 

4. Mass cheating: This is a traceable large scale organized cheating involving school 

authorities, examination officials and candidates through the answering of the 

questions on the chalkboard for the candidates to copy. 

5. Smuggling of answer scripts: This involves candidates having external assistance to 

take to and fro the examination hall answer scripts duly prepared by syndicates in 

connivance with invigilators and/or supervisors and other examination officials. 

6. Dubbing: Dubbing is an arrangement involving the invigilators or supervisors 

whereby candidates are allowed to copy from each other in the hall. 

7. Insult/Assault on Supervisor, Invigilators/ Inspectors by candidates: This takes the 

form of beating of examination officials, destruction of examination official’s cars 

and manhandling of examination officials and/or using indecent language on 

supervisors and invigilators who fail to cooperate with them. 

8. Bringing foreign materials into the examination hall: Such as textbooks, cribs, past 

questions papers either containing numerous notes or used as disguise for current 

ones that have been smuggled out, photocopies of prepared answers. 

9. Procurement of answer booklets: This is one of the ways the syndicate operates; 

whereby they have enough current answer booklets through the assistance of the 

examination body personnel. They tactically exchange written answer booklets with 

their candidates before stoppage time and/or in connivance with the school 

examination officer and the assigned supervisor. 

10. Enrolling syndicate and self: This happens during the enrolment, the syndicate will 

be enrolled alongside with the candidate using fake names. in the examination hail, 

the syndicate will be doing the writing and at the end exchange answer booklet with 

the candidate. 

11. Inscription: Students have now advanced to the level of inscribing materials or 

information on anything like parts of their body, for example palms, thighs, baby 

pampers; dresses, handkerchiefs, rulers, purses, chairs, tables, walls of examination 

halls and so on. Some student even code points and synthesize their notes in such a 

way that they will be the only one that could understand and use them for cheating. 



 

 

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12. Personality Connection: There are cases where some influential students make use 

of godfathers in politics, economic high towers, parents, and cult members to 

influence the outcome of examinations. 

 

Innovation Strategies to Curb Examination Malpractice in Public Examinations in 

Nigeria  

Despite various efforts of the Government and examination bodies to curb the menace of 

examination malpractice especially in public examinations in Nigeria, the 

perpetrators kept on devising   new strategies to execute the act.  It is therefore 

needful that stringent measures are invented to eradicate examination malpractice 

in Nigeria. These measures include:  

1. Introduction of web-based biometric data capture: This is the most suitable means 

of identifying and authenticating individuals in a reliable and fast way through 

unique biological characteristics. It involves the computer based registration of 

candidates for the examination.  

2. Biometric verification of candidates: This involves the identification and 

verification of candidates for the examination based on recognizable and 

verifiable data. It compares data for the person’s characteristics to that person’s 

biometric template to determine resemblance.   

3. Introduction of Computer Based Test (CBT): This is a paperless process by which 

examinations are designed, developed, delivered and scored by computer with the 

key element of Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) “The questions are authored 

and loaded onto the servers, these questions are then delivered to the test-taker 

base on a randomization algorithm. The assessment is marked by the computer 

and result is instantly made available.   

4. Provision of uniform writing materials to candidates.  

5. Introduction of customized question paper booklets.  

6. Installation of Short Message Service (SMS) tracking devices at all examination 

centres that can access network. 

7. Screening of candidates with metal detectors.   

8. Juggling/scrambling of question. 

9. Installation of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras in all examination halls 

to check malpractice.  

10. Introduction of question paper types.  

11. The use of security bags to carry examination materials as against metal boxes 

thereby making the carriage of examination materials  very easy and less 

cumbersome. 

12. The use of examination watch groups.  

13. Increase in the number of scanners for speedy processing of candidates scripts. 

14. Improvement in Examination Administration. 



 

 

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15. The creation of more examination towns and custodian points for easy 

distribution and retrieval of examination materials.   

16. Upward review of salaries and allowances of examination resource person.  

17. Retrieval of examination materials right from the examination day in order to 

forestall any form of post-examination malpractice.    

18. Prohibition of mobile phone in examination hall. 

19. Prohibition of the use of ear piece in examination hall.  

20. Maintenance of high integrity by examination officials at all times in order to 

serve as deterrent to other stakeholders. 

21. Enormous deployment of security personnel to all exams centres during the 

conduct of any public examination; and dismissal of any security agent that is 

caught aiding and abetting examination malpractice.  

22. Schools in both rural and urban areas must meet all needed requirements before 

they are recognized as exams centres. Only the schools that have required 

facilities must be recognized by the supervisory body.   

23. Sending of only credible staff to monitor public examinations by examination 

monitoring unit of the Ministry of Education and examination bodies.  

24. Punishing of schools and individuals involved in examination malpractice.   

 

Conclusion 

Examination malpractice, which started in Nigeria as a minor misdemeanour has not only 

assumed a frightening dimension, it seems to have become a permanent feature of 

Nigeria education system. Efforts by governments, examining bodies, institutions, 

individuals and concerned groups towards eradicating it have not yielded meaningful 

results. Rather, the situation has become worse in recent times. The new trend involves 

an organized system of the supervisors, invigilators, teachers, and in some cases heads 

of schools. There is therefore the need for a team effort to stem this social malaise that 

has become inimical to educational development in the country. Examination 

malpractice is a social problem that has wrecked unimaginable havoc to the entire fabric 

of Nigeria. It is a hydra headed problem that requires a multidimensional approach to its 

resolution. Any effort aimed at resolving this problem must be collaborative, that is, 

involving all stakeholders in the education sector, if not, such efforts will end up being 

an exercise in futility.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

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References 

Adesina, S. (2015). Growth without development: Nigeria’s educational experience 

1914-2004. Abeokuta: Educational Industries Nigerian Ltd.  

Arijesuyo, A. E., & Adeyoju, C. A. (2010). Effectiveness of cognitive restructuring 

counselling strategy on students’ attitude towards examination malpractice: 

Implications for social re-engineering. Nigerian Journal of Applied Clinical & 

Counselling Psychology. (In Press). 

Atonko, B. (2010). CAN Holds Education Summit ask Government to Tackle 

Examination Malpractice through Special Court. Sunday Trust, September  

Edukugho, E. (2011). WAEC’s Conflicting Results: Minister Blames Lack of 

Communication for Confusion. Vanguard Newspaper 15th September Pg.30 

Ekukugho, R. (2011). WAEC to publish the list of indicted Supervisors, Invigilators. 

Vanguard Newspaper February 17 

Fasasi, Y. A. (2018). Quality Assurance: A Practical Solution To Examination 

malpractices In Nigerian Secondary 

Olagboye, A. A. (2014). Introduction to educational management in Nigeria. Ibadan: 

Daily Graphics (Nigeria) Limited 

Omebe,C.A. (2012). Fundamentals of basic science and technology. Fred-Ogah 

Publishers Emene-Enugu. 

Ukoha, K. (2017, February 17, 18). Names of banned schools. Week End Times, p.4 

West African Examination Council (2000-2010) Annual Statistical Report of 

Examination Malpractice.  

 

 


