PROPOSED TOPIC: THE ROLE OF

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (I.T) IN

CURBING OF EXAMINATION
MALPRACTICES VIA EXAMINATION PAPER
LEAKAGE IN SIERRA LEONE – WAEC
SIERRA LEONE

Submitted by:
FODAY S. KAMARA: ID: 2021279.
YEAR 2022

FACULTY OF COMPUTER ENGINEERING

SAINT MONICA UNVERSITY (SMU)_ SIERRA LEONE

JANUARY 2022
TABLE OF CONTENT
1. Background..............................................................................................2
2. Problem Statement...................................................................................3
3. Aim and Objectives...................................................................................4
4. Scope and Constraint................................................................................5
4.2 Lack of enough funds:............................................................................5
4.3 Scope:...................................................................................................5
5. Feasibility Study.......................................................................................6
5.1 Financial Feasibility................................................................................6
5.2 Technical Feasibility...............................................................................6
5.3 Resource and Time Feasibility.................................................................6
5.4 Risk Feasibility.......................................................................................6
5.5 Social/ Legal Feasibility...........................................................................7
6. Justification..............................................................................................8
7. Literature Review.....................................................................................9
8. Technology Used....................................................................................10
8.1 Electronic Detectors.............................................................................10
8.2 Phones Signal Jammers........................................................................10
8.3 Faraday Cage.......................................................................................10
8.4 Airport Style Security Scanner...............................................................11
9. Organization of the Study........................................................................12
9.1 Research Design..................................................................................12
9.2 Population of the Study........................................................................12
9.3 Research Instruments...........................................................................12
9.4 Research Procedure..............................................................................12
9.5 Data Analysis.......................................................................................12

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 1. Background
Exams are used to objectively evaluate and assess students' learning outcomes,
ability to demonstrate knowledge and understanding, and potential for other
employment skill development. According to Online Schools Center Website,
examinations are used to assess candidates' levels of achievement and even
place them in specific career paths. Actions and practices that undermine
examination credibility pose a serious threat to the educational system's quality
and achievement of its selective goals. Examination leaks are an example of such
actions that jeopardize the integrity of examinations and undermine the authority
of those in charge of them. Examination leakage is not the same as examination
cheating. Examination leakage is defined in this study as the illegal filtration of
an examination question paper from its system or access to the examination
question paper by a candidate before the paper is officially opened in the
examination room. In the presence of candidates in the examination rooms,
examination leakage can occur anywhere between the setting of the examination
paper and the opening of the examination question papers. Leakage can occur
during the setting, moderation, Production point, dispatching of question papers,
at storage stations, and from storage stations to examination centres in Sierra
Leone (Politico SL, Feb 2016). Exam malpractice is defined as a deliberate act of
wrongdoing that is contrary to official examination rules and is intended to give a
candidate an unfair advantage or disadvantage (The World Bank Group. 2001).
Examination malpractice is defined by the WAEC (2004) as "any irregular
behaviour exhibited by a candidate or anyone charged with the conduct of
examination in and outside the examination hall, before, during, or after such
examination. In general, examination malpractice is defined as irregular
behaviour by candidates or agents charged with conducting examinations within
or outside the examination hall prior to the start of the test or examination, or
during or after the test or examination, with the intent of gaining an unfair
advantage in such test or examination.

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 2. Problem Statement
Exams are commonly used to assess people's abilities in specific areas or
disciplines. They play an important role in both our educational system and the
society in which we live. Exam leakage is a type of malpractice, which is an
illegal practise that undermines the purpose of exams. This is due to a variety of
factors, including the way examinations are conducted, which may contain some
loopholes that may entice candidates and other stakeholders to violate
examination rules. Some candidates may be relatively academically weak and
wish to study at the same pace as those who are relatively academically strong.
Other candidates are aware that they are weak, but due to laziness, they will not
want to learn difficult material in order to pass, preferring instead to cheat. Some
school stakeholders may be competing with their neighbours in terms of
performance. Despite the government's and assessment bodies' efforts to curb
the vice, people appeared unconcerned. If the vice is not stopped, the following
outcomes are possible: no reliable results, loss of credibility in the assessment
body, and the entire education system losing meaning. As a result, there is a
need to identify the prevalent malpractices (leakages) and their dynamics, as
well as to take appropriate measures using ICT to mitigate this threat. As a
result, the study seeks to describe and propose a distributed question
generator system as part of the measures for mitigating examination
leakages at the Examination Body.

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 3. Aim and Objectives

The primary objective of the research is to investigate the situation surrounding

examinations malpractices via examination paper leakages and improve
WAEC’s performance in curbing examination malpractice in the respect of
examination paper leakage in order to increase the future integrity and value of
the Institution and its examinations. identifying and improving technologies used
in the fight against examination malpractice, determining training needs for staff
who may use these systems, clarifying roles and responsibilities, and deciding
how to distribute them.

Hence, the general objective or main objective of this study is to examine the
influence of information systems and electronic media on curbing the menace of
examination malpractice among students in Sierra Leone who take national and
external examinations such as the NPSE, BECE and WASSCE. The specific
objectives are:

i) To understand the menace of examination malpractices in Sierra Leone

ii) To investigate the nature and causes of examination malpractices in
Sierra Leone
iii) To study the ways through which examination malpractices can be
prevented in Sierra Leone through the use of Information Technology
Systems and electronic media

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 4. Scope and Constraint

The scope is aimed to be large enough to include all project deliverables, but
small enough to be attainable. Therefore, the requirements of the system will be
limited to identifying ways to create a distributed system across examination
centres through which a final, unique examination paper can be generated and
shared among these centres close to the time of start of examinations.

The study will be conducted to examine the influence of information systems and
electronic media and its subsequent use in curbing the menace of examination
malpractice among students in Sierra Leone. Thus, the study will use WAEC as a
case study.

The limitations of this study are highlighted in the following points:

4.1 Time factor:

It is anticipated that the time for the study may not be enough to carry
out intensive and extensive study since some of the information is not
easily and quickly available.

4.2 Lack of enough funds:

The funds available are not enough to meet all expenses during the study
like transport cost, meal allowance, photocopies and stationeries
expenses. Hence the researchers conducted the study in accordance with
the limited funds available.

4.3 Scope:
The scope of the project for covers mainly the development of a system
that automatically generates questions from a question bank but does not
consider the broader ecological and environmental aspect of how the
system may be integrated at a management level within WAEC for the
national and regional level.

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 5. Feasibility Study

A feasibility study will be carried out to see how viable the system is going to be
for implementation. Our feasibility study will be divided into the following
categories:
 Financial Feasibility
 Technical Feasibility
 Resource and Time Feasibility
 Risk Feasibility
 Social/Legal Feasibility

5.1 Financial Feasibility

Here, we will be enquiring hosting cost, bandwidth when considering
multimedia content, cost of data transfer across examination centres

5.2 Technical Feasibility

Here we will be investigating which technologies will be implemented
for the proposed web-based application and also the tools associated
with the system. It is obvious at this point that we will be including the
following technologies:
HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and MySQL.

5.3 Resource and Time Feasibility

We will be investigating which resources will be required, such as
hardware, tools and individuals.

5.4 Risk Feasibility

We will be looking into:
 Risks associated with size
 Business Impact Risks
 Customer related risks
 Development environment risk
 Process issue risks
 Technical issue risks and
 Technology risks

5.5 Social/ Legal Feasibility

We will be investigating the domain of proprietary versus open-source
technologies to account for intellectual property implications. This
would also look into how the maintenance cost will be considered
through the students.

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 6. Justification

The researchers will aim to get first-hand information on the impact of

examination malpractice on academic performance in university and prior to
university. For example, it was reported that in 2022, over 75 percent of
university applicants could not pass the university entrance examinations which
indicates a national emergency as these numbers are worrisome. This research
will help the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education as well as the Ministry of
Tertiary and Higher Education to measure the level of examination malpractices
in Sierra Leone. The research will be of great help to other students in the
secondary schools and university who might wish to enhance the same later.
Examination paper leakage: The content or any part of examination is
disclosed prior to the examination due to improper handling of examination
questions during production processes by the examiner, staff, printers, proof
readers, messengers, personnel employed to develop the papers, heads of
departments and school administration.

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 7. Literature Review

Academic malpractices are on the increase across the world, and it is a threat to
the society and public trust in reliability and credibility [1]. The use of
examinations to promote learners from one level of education to the next level
and for certification of candidates has brought about competition among learners
leading to examination malpractices [2]. This is because candidates at all levels
of education desire to pass examinations to enable them transit from one level of
education into the next level [2]. [3] defined examination malpractice as any act
carried out by anybody that defies the rules that guides a student whose
knowledge or ability is being tested in a particular knowledge or skill with the aim
of distorting the student’s true knowledge or ability. Examination malpractice is
any deliberate act of wrong doing, contrary to the rules of examinations
designed to give a candidate an undue advantage [4]. For [5] examination
malpractice is any improper action carried out before, during and after the
examination with the intention of cheating or having an advantage. Examination
malpractice as an illegal act committed by a single student or in collaboration
with others like fellow students, parents, teachers, supervisors, invigilators,
computer operators or secretarial staff and anybody or group of people before,
during, or after examination in order to obtain undeserved marks or grade [6].
The incidences of examination malpractice are common everywhere and every
examination season witnesses the emergence of new ingenious way of cheating
[7]. The modern trend of examination malpractices involves the use of miniature
technologies such as specialized wrist watch, eye glass and mobile phones
etcetera. However, despite the negative application of technology by
perpetrators of examination malpractice, the use of technology remains one of
the best ways to tackle the menace of cheating in examinations.

(Note: references retracted for final report)

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 8. Technology Used

Different approaches have been adopted to check examination malpractice in

institutions of learning in Sierra Leone. At the national level, legislation has been
put in place to curb the malady. Penalties range from cancellation of result to
outright dismissal of culprits.

It seems to appear that all measures aimed at curbing examination malpractices

in schools seem to have failed. However, technologically, it would be relatively
possible to minimize examination malpractices in schools and institutions of
higher learning if various hi-tech equipment is employed. We will briefly explain
some of them and also explain the technology used for our own system. Some
tools used include the following:

8.1 Electronic Detectors

These are technological equipment that has the ability of detecting
mobile technology devices as they are switched on or off and when
in use. These detectors could be utilized to identity signals outside
the hall. It can also indicate whether the mobile device is being
operated within an examination hail.

8.2 Phones Signal Jammers

Phone-Jammers are devices which are designed to prevent radio
equipment from receiving and transmitting the signal relevant to
their functions. Meikie (2006) pointed out that it is technologically
easy to disrupt mobile phones by making all attempts to block the
electrical fields.

8.3 Faraday Cage

Underwood (2006) reported that faraday cage is a less expensive
alternative to signal jamming. It is also called blanket cloaking of
an examination hall. This device disrupts the mobile phones
connections. The cage involves creating a metal to shield the
examination hall/room, which blocks electromagnetic waves by
mobile phones from traveling. By so doing, the unwanted signals

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are flittered out while allowing certain transmission proceeds as
normal. The main function of the device is to prevent signal from
getting through by causing “shadows” or radio wave blind spots.

8.4 Airport Style Security Scanner

This is a signal detector useful in preventing the use of mobile
communication in examination hall. It allows for quick search,
screening, and examination of students and what are on them
before entering the examination halls. Once suspicious items are
shown on the monitor screen of the scanner, the student will be
instructed to remove the items before entering the examination or
test hail (centre for Medicare and Medicaid service, 2005).

Here, tele-electric monitoring device otherwise known as closed-

circuit Television is installed in examination hails. This device can
be very effective in curbing examination malpractice in institutions
where there are large numbers of students and few invigilators or
supervisors in the hail. Through the closed-circuit television,
examination monitoring officers from the control room watch and
monitor the examination halls effectively.

8.5 Technology Used in Examination Question Papers

Generator

This system is going to adapt a distributed web application

interface which means that it can be accessed from anywhere in
Sierra Leone (especially at the examination centres where
authorized personnel are granted access). The technologies to be
employed are as follows:

Programming Language:

 XAMPP v3.3.0
 PHP
 MySQL Database
 HTML
 CSS

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 JavaScript
 jQuery
 Bootstrap v5
 AdminLTE

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 9. Organization of the Study
This section entails the methods to be used to collect the data necessary to
answer the research. It is divided into;
9.1 Research Design
The study will use an investigative research design. This enhances
the researchers to obtain a better understanding of the impact of
examination malpractice on academic performance.

9.2 Population of the Study

The populations of study may be teachers and students in selected
schools in Freetown, Sierra Leone as well as examiners from WAEC
Sierra Leone.

9.3 Research Instruments

Questionnaire: Primary data will be collected by use of
questionnaire and interviews, filled by teachers and examiners of
the sampled schools to obtain ideas on what constitutes
examination malpractices. These may be designed in both open
and closed ended form. The method is to ensure high proportion of
responses and higher returns rate.

9.4 Research Procedure

The researchers may use an introductory letter from Limkokwing
University and present it to the targeted authority to obtain
permission for the study. This gives directive to the examiners at
WAEC. After acceptance by the authorities the major task of
collecting data starts immediately.

9.5 Data Analysis

The information collected will be analysed and edited to create
consistency and completeness. After collecting the questionnaires,
they will be edited for completeness and consistency across the

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respondents and to locate omissions. Information obtained from
the research study is presented and analysed using tables.

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