The efficacy of moral/religious counselling in checking examination malpractices among secondary school students

Abstract

Examination malpractices have become one of the most highly pervasive social problems in the educational system of contemporary Nigerian society. This problem is almost destroying the credibility of our educational system. This is because the intensity, level and zeal with which people carry out the act have stimulated great concern in educational, public and government circles. The truth is that all efforts made to curb this problem have proved abortive. This might be so because the problem is a reflection of the general moral decadence in the society and unless the problem is viewed from this angle, it may continue to defy all solutions. Hence, the major purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of moral/religious counselling in checking examination malpractices among secondary school students. A 2x2 factorial design was used on a sample of 80 secondary school students who were drawn from four randomly selected secondary schools in Ogun State. An adapted version of Hassan (1987)'s Scale values of perceived causes of examination malpractices was used to collect data before and after the administration of the treatment programme. The analysis of covariance was used to test the only hypothesis formulated. Results showed that the examination cheating behaviour of the treatment group was significantly lower than that of the control group. Based on these findings, it was recommended that government should encourage the teaching of moral/religious instructions in schools. Also, counsellors should be posted to schools to compliment moral/religious instructions through the provision of moral counselling to students.

The Nigerian Journal of Guidance and Counselling Vol. 8 (1) 2002: pp. 47-60