Cheating and Dishonesty in Examinations: Can Examination Malpractices Be Curbed?

Cultivating students’ awareness of cheating in examinations serves as a crucial initial step towards eradicating cheating practices during examinations. Statistics show that cheating among secondary school students has been on the rise each year yet research focusing on students’ perceptions of the vice has not been adequately explored. This study singled out students as respondents and conducted an in-depth study to establish their perceptions of cheating in examinations. The study sought to establish why students in Ngong Division, Kajiado County, Kenya, cheated in examinations followed by a determination of the strategies that could be utilized to curb the malpractice. The target population for this study was students in public secondary schools in Ngong Division, Kajiado County. The sample consisted of 400 secondary school students from 8 sampled secondary schools in Ngong Division Kajiado County. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the data. The results were presented in frequency tables, bar charts and percentages. From the findings, the reasons why students cheat in examinations include: poor/lack of invigilation, lack of revision, to please parents, the desire to get good grades, the desire to join good competitive courses and when the content/subject is hard to master. Strategies for curbing the vice include: using examinations in conjunction with other assessment techniques, enhancing invigilation, openly punishing the offenders, guidance and counselling, value-based education, keeping abreast with the latest cheating methods, parents and teachers desisting from punishing learners who do not pass examinations and the development of a comprehensive participatory examination dishonesty policy by every school. However, rather positively, the findings also revealed that some students would never cheat under any circumstances.