GRADE ALTERATION AND GRADE INFLATION: ANALYSIS OF CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES

This study analyzes grade alteration and inflation to establish the major causes and consequences. The descriptive survey research design and the quantitative methods were adopted for the study. The population for the study consisted of 1,198 academic staff from an educational platform of staff from universities in Africa. The instrument used for the study was a self-developed questionnaire of the five-point Likert scale of Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree, developed after a thorough literature review. The questionnaire was face and content validated, and an Alpha reliability coefficient of 0.862 was obtained, indicating that the instrument was reliable. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and factor analysis. Results of the analysis revealed that the main causes of grade alteration are students’ considerations, pressure to raise grades, and the need for compassion, while the major causes of grade inflation are administrative and teacher factors, students’ nuisance, and the use of part-time or non-tenured lecturers. In the same vein, the leading consequences of grade alteration and grade inflation are the failure of education to achieve its goals and a decrease in the quality of education. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that schools should thoroughly interrogate altered grades before their acceptance as a measure of students’ performance, while inflated grades should be extensively audited. The pressure by school administration and parents on teachers about grades must be broken, while lecturers should be trained on teaching professional ethics so that they can disabuse their minds from any external influences, as grading is a concern and thus award grades devoid of any other considerations apart from the demands of the test or examination.