Africa Education Watch (EduWatch) is urging stakeholders to look beyond students when assessing the poor performance recorded in the latest West African Senior School Certificate E
The report indicates that africa Education Watch (EduWatch) is urging stakeholders to look beyond students when assessing the poor performance recorded in the latest West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
It further notes that the Executive Director of EduWatch, Kofi Asare, says failures should also trigger questions about the effectiveness of Ghana’s education system.
His comments follow the release of the latest WASSCE results, which showed significant challenges in candidates’ performance in some core subjects.
The results have renewed debate over the grading system and whether it contributes to the number of students who fail or are unable to secure placement.
But Mr Asare says the focus should not be placed solely on the grading system.
He explained that the use of the Stanine grading system means a proportion of candidates will always fall at the lower end of the performance curve.
“Obviously, since you have stanine, you always have a certain number scoring 4% I mean, scoring nine. And so the stanine norm, 4% are likely to get nine.”
He stated differences in performance across subjects can also affect the overall number of high-performing candidates.
“And so if you have 4% getting nine in maths, and that 4% are not the same as those getting nine in English, then you’re likely to have 8% statistically.”
According to him, this could still translate into a significant number of candidates when applied to the total WASSCE cohort.
“So then you’re still getting close to 50k from this number; we are talking about 619k.”
He emphasised that some candidates will naturally fall at the lower end of the curve under the grading system.
“So, it’s expected that those at the lower end of the bell curve will always not meet that mark.”
However, Mr Asare cautioned against making the grading system the central explanation for the latest results.
