Abstract

This paper tried to investigate the perception of teachers’ and pupils' on the forms and causes of examination malpractices. In order to carry out the study, a total of 457 primary six pupils and 181 teachers were used as the sample got by proportionate stratified random sampling techniques from the population which was all teachers and all primary six pupils in Umuahia North Local Government Area of Abia State which is 600 and 1520 respectively. The instruments for data collection are researcher designed questionnaires which are of the restricted response types. Four research questions were answered and four hypotheses were tested using ranks and chi-squared statistics respectively. Results indicate that the significant causes of examination malpractice as perceived by the pupils include poor study habit, inadequate infrastructure in schools, inadequate preparation for examination and fear offailure in examination and the accompanying shame. Teachers on the other hand perceived lack of professional competence, inability to cover the syllabus, irregular payment of teacher’s salaries and excess work load as significant causes of examination malpractices in primary schools. While pupils perceived peeping into another person’s work ‘giraffing’ as a significant form examination malpractice take in primary schools, teachers, however viewed continuous assessment exaggeration as a major form, examination malpractices take in primary school. Recommendations made include that pupils should be helped to cultivate a high reading culture and good study habits; there should be massive campaign against examination malpractice in primary schools towards eradicating this social vice in our society