Possible Reduction Mechanisms of Exam Cheating Practices for First Year Management Regular Students in Human Resource Management Course

Exam cheating practice is one of the most bottlenecks in Ethiopian education system in general and Debre Markos University Burie Campus in particular. Complaints on devastating increase of exam cheating practice has been heard from different corners in the country including the apex of Ministry of Education, which is the core owners, teachers, students and school managers from elementary schools to higher education institutions. As a result, it is necessary to tackle such type of problem in order to improve the quality of education. Hence, an action research was undertaken in 2019 in first year students of management department Human Resource Management course so as to reduce exam cheating problems by identifying the different exam cheating methods, contributing factors for cheating and developing a strategy how to minimize such types of malpractice. The study was conducted by employing purposive sampling technique with well-prepared lakert scale and semi-structured questionnaires for students and the department staff instructors as well. Both primary & secondary data were incorporated. For this study 60 first year management students and 8 instructors were considered as the key respondents. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics after properly encoded by SPSS software. Regarding to the exam cheating prevalence, 73.3% of respondents were confessed that cheating practice was common in first year management students. The major contributing factors that provoked students’ academics dishonest were hard exam, fear of failure, time pressure, competition with others, peer pressure, poor understanding of the exam question, demanding high score, high grade and over crowed exam room. Moreover, the study also identified the most frequently cheating strategies of written exam were sheet cribs, writing on their body, looking at another answer sheet, signals/gesture, using unauthorized materials, whisper/undertone and medical reason. In order to reduce exam cheating practice close supervision during the exam process, effective class room management, punishment, ensure effective teaching and learning process, used coded exam type, advise the students properly to use their time effectively, provide clear examination rule and enable them to prepared for exam well were a paramount strategies that will bring an improvement for quality education and cheating reduction..