An inquiry into the possible causes of Standard 10 examination malpractices : a socio-pedagogic perspective
The aim of the study was to find out what the causes of standard 10 examination malpractices were. Standard 10 pupils, teachers, and principals were consulted and interviewed for this purpose. In this study two research methods were used; namely literature review and an empirical investigation. Literature was reviewed on the researched problem. Ndlovu (1983) maintains that some teachers are not in class during their teaching periods because they are in the staffroom or are not at school. Thus pupils involve themselves in examination malpractices in order to pass. The findings of this study were further backed up by Thembela (1982) who is of the opinion that copying is not prevented in some of the centres. In fact in some cases invigilators allow and encourage pupils to copy. There were three distinct samples to which questionnaires were administered. The questionnaire consisted of structured as well as the unstructured items for validity and reliability. The research was conducted among 300 pupils, 90 teachers and 11 principals. The researcher has preferred to use the questionnaire because it is more convenient and economical. By using a questionnaire one can have a lot of respondents without a lot of expense in time and effort. It covers a lot of people within a short space of time. The bigger the number of respondents the greater is the validity in the results. Each respondent receives the same set of questions which are phrased in the same way. The questionnaires are supposed to give a more comparable data. It took the researcher about 1 hour to get pupils, teachers and principals to complete the questionnaire. The researcher analysed data manually. Percentages were mainly used to analyse the pupils1, teachers1 and principals* responses. From the results it was found that standard 10 examination malpractices were caused by absenteeism of both teachers and pupils, lack of teaching equipment, laziness of both teachers and pupils, incompletion . of the syllabus, ^-.■stayg.ways.,-"; teachers-who are engaged in extra mural studies "-lack of prescribed books, and teachers who are not dedicated to their work. The following, hypotheses were formulated: (1) Stayaways, laziness and irresponsibility affect serious teaching and learning at school, leading in turn to the buying of stolen examination papers. (2) Tight security in the department prevents leakage. (3) If malpractices are suspected the department withholds results. (4) Some irresponsible members of^ the community sell stolen examination papers to pupils. The above hypotheses were proved valid in the analysis and interpretation of data. The findings of this study are recommended for further research.
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