Professor Jonathan Fletcher, the Acting Dean of the School of Education and Leadership, has delivered an Inter-College Lecture on the topic, Examination Malpractice: A Threat to Global Development .The lecture, which was the last for the second semester of the 2017/2018 academic year, was chaired by Professor Michael Tagoe, Acting Provost of the College of Education.
Professor Fletcher began the lecture by explaining that examination malpractice is any action or inaction that contravenes the rules of acceptable examination practice before, during and after an examination.
He noted that examination malpractice is a “beast” which attacks and destroys the reliability and validity of the interpretation and use of examination results. He indicated that examination malpractice is a threat to meritocracy in school and university settings, as it discourages hard work among students and consequently lowers the quality of the skills and knowledge students acquire in their studies, making them less competitive on the global market.
Professor Fletcher explained that examination malpractice is a threat to national development since it can hinder a country from attaining the Sustainable Development Goals, most of which are linked directly or indirectly to education. He also discussed how the emergence of sophisticated electronic devices have come to compound the challenges examination malpractice pose to educators and examination boards.
He recommended that in order to “tame the beast”, examination malpractice should be treated as an issue of national importance, and strategies developed to at the very least control the menace. He called on teachers at all levels to develop teaching strategies and methods that will encourage students to study and strive to pass examinations without having to resort to cheating. Educational institutions should revise examination rules and regulations that will include monitoring of high-tech devices that are used for examination malpractice.
The Acting Provost of the College of Education, Professor Michael Tagoe, who chaired the lecture, noted that the lecture was very timely as the University was entering the examination period and examination officials would benefit greatly from the issues discussed. In discussions, members of the audience discussed techniques to control examination malpractice, ways to change the structure of examinations to discourage cheating, and also how to change the mindset of students to desist from examination malpractice.
You can click on this link to watch the lecture on youtube. https://youtu.be/WTeA7TaS4HU