Head of Institution advocates for collaboration in grading system
Mr Joseph Essibu, Director General of Ideal College, has advocated for collaboration between stakeholders in education to ensure fairness in the grading system for entry into the universities.
He said there should be an adequate synchronisation of policies of Ghana Education Service, West African Examinations Council and the Universities for an acceptable grading system.
Mr Essibu was addressing a press conference on lapses in the grading system when students applied for admission into public universities.
The University of Ghana in January, this year introduced a new policy for admissions, under which students with grades A1 to C6 are acceptable for West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) and students with D7 and E8 although have passed are rejected.
Mr Essibu noted that the policy of not accepting those “passes” was unfair since it was discriminatory against some students who had also passed.
He cited a situation where some students passed well in all the other subjects at the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations (SSSCE) level and had grade E in Mathematics went to read Humanities at the University of Ghana and came out with First Class.
Mr Essibu said the inadequacies in second-cycle institutions had resulted in the mass failure of students in the WASSCE.
He stressed that the 2009 November/December Examinations revealed that 76.16 per cent of candidates had D7 to F9 in Integrated Science while 86.18 per cent had D7 to F9 in Mathematics.
Mr Essibu reiterated that the College realised that some of the questions for WASSCE were not covered in the Ghana Education Service recommended textbooks, and suggested collaboration between GES and WAEC to develop textbooks which adequately treat topics for the WASSCE.
Mr Kyei Baffour, Communication Manager of Ideal College said studies revealed that the 2010 November/December Mathematics question was too difficult for average students to solve.
He suggested that the syllabus, marking schemes and the Chief Examiner’s report should be made available on the internet for easy accessibility.
Mr Baffour appealed to WAEC that the raw scores of students in the various subjects like English-Essay, Comprehension and Summary be made available to help students identify their strength and weaknesses.
He suggested that GES should look at the approach adopted in imparting knowledge to students since more emphasis was on theory than practical.
Source: GNA