Examination Malpractice In Africa - Who Is Truly Responsible?

Examination Malpractice in Africa...Who Is Truly Responsible?

The West African Examinations Council WAEC in Ghana seized 6812 results  belonging to some of the candidates who sat the June 2015 Basic Education Certificate Examination BECE as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged examination malpractice.

In August  2015, 118,101 candidates who sat the West African Senior School Certificate Examination WASSCE  in Nigeria had their results withheld for similar reasons.

Kenya reported that 1,702 students who sat the Certificate of Primary Education CPE were involved in examination malpractices.

The issue of examination malpractice and the subsequent seizure of candidates results have been part and parcel of the African education scene for over 30 years.  In some instances, the education body has gone all the way to even blacklist some schools thereby stopping students from these institutions from participating in national examinations.  

However what seems to be more baffling is the increase in numbers of candidates allegedly involved and their age range too. For example in Ghana, the BECE is written by students in the third year of junior secondary school and aged 15. In Kenya the students involved were aged around 12.

So how does a 12 year old get involved in examination malpractice?  First it is pertinent to note that there are varying degrees of examination malpractice from candidates asking their colleagues for answers during the examination, to having full access to examination question paper prior to the official examination date and preparing the answers well beforehand.  And this is what makes up over 70% of the cases.

It is plain to see that such an operation is definitely beyond the abilities of the students alone. There are other collaborators who could be but not limited to teachers / invigilators, school owners, examination body staff, security agents, parents – yes parents and the students and even organized criminal gangs. All previous investigations seemed to have focused on the students and the schools only.  This is evident from the penalties often meted out which usually falls on students and schools. For over three decades there has not been a case of a member of the examination board, a parent or security personnel being put on trial for partaking in examination malpractice.  If it’s just the schools and the students alone who seem to be involved going by the investigations, then by now the problem ought to be on the decline and not on the increase.

There is much more than meets the eye in this matter. Government and stakeholders need to work hand in hand to deal a decisive blow to this ugly menace before it eats up the entire African education system.

Africa Needs Free and Qualitative Education

Africa Needs Free & Qualitative Education

By Sina Adelaja-Olowoake

We know politicians the world over make promises some of which they never plan to fulfil once the elections are over yet we still believe them and vote for them based on these empty promises. In Africa, politicians have identified the magic words that gets the young, the old, the strong, the feeble trooping to campaign grounds and polling stations – free education. From Ghana to Uganda, Nigeria to Zimbabwe, African voters are still being wooed with promises of free education by politicians.

With the 2016 elections fast approaching in Ghana, the ruling party last Friday rolled out its “progressive” free education programme which also includes the construction of new classroom blocks across the country.  

Free education in Africa is not a new phenomenon. Many African countries in the period immediately following independence from the colonial masters, embarked on free and in some cases compulsory education programmes to help create a new set of trained administrators to fill the void left by the departing colonialists. During this time, the quality of education from the major providers namely the government, religious bodies and private organizations was at par with what was obtainable in the developed world. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for what passes for free education today.

Today across the continent especially in primary and secondary schools the quality of teaching and teachers leaves much to be desired. Gone are the days when teachers chose the profession for the love of it. A lot of the teaching staff in schools currently are not trained or qualified to teach. Many only became emergency teachers after many years of unemployment.

Closely related to the issue of poor quality of teaching is the state of infrastructure. I am always shocked to see children studying under roofless classes or under trees in Africa in this day and age. In some cases, even the teachers and the school head sit under trees all day long. We have had many cases of schools lacking basic amenities such as water, toilets, etc.  What kind of education are the children receiving?

The role of parents too must come under scrutiny. In the early days, parents worked through the Parents Teachers Association to improve the overall quality of the schools which sometimes using their influence to get good staff posted to their children’s school, erecting buildings, purchasing transportation etc.  A lot of parents are no longer involved in the day to day lives of their children which invariably means they no longer participate in the affairs of the school.

It is very sad to see in the current clime, politician after politician promising free education, with nobody is tasking them on the quality of education they are promising to provide. Not only is the government failing and has failed in providing good quality education, she is also failing to properly regulate private providers. Many private organizations engaged in this sector continue to cut corners by using unqualified staff, unsuitable buildings and environment and charging astronomical fees without any form of regulation from the government.

 

If Africa is to move forward towards realising its full potential then African governments engaged in providing free education must go the extra mile by investing heavily in the quality of education she provides.

·         Schools must be staffed by trained and qualified staff and must commit to further training and re-training programmes.

·         Housed in buildings with basic amenities such as water, electricity, and ICT equipments in a safe environment.

·         Task school heads and teaching  staff with constantly improving performance

·         Equip and empower school authorities to enforce and maintain discipline in schools

·         Increase the education budget and ensure the money voted for the sector is properly managed and disbursed.

·         Promote healthy rivalry and competition amongst schools

·        Seek the cooperation of foreign agencies to improve overall quality.

Sina Adelaja-Olowoake is the creator of the youth mentor app. He is also a youth coach and public speaker. He regularly contributes on matters concerning education in Africa on the blog Chalk, Pen & Boards.

sina@sinaolowoake.com

State School Pupils Do Better At University.....Can You Believe This?

Culled From BBC News

State school pupils do better at university than independent school candidates who have achieved the same A-level grades, a study shows.

The Higher Education Funding Council (Hefce) tracked 130,000 students beginning degrees in 2007, looking at schooling, background and ethnicity.

It found on some measures state pupils were significantly more likely to get a 2:1 than their private school peers.

Private schools said a bigger share of its pupils overall got a 2:1 or above.

The Independent Schools Council highlighted figures in the report showing that 67% of independent school pupils achieved a 2:1 or above, compared with 62.3% of state school and college pupils.

But when students with the same A-level grades were compared, the results were different.

Of those students who achieved ABB at A-level, some 69% of students from independent schools went on to gain 2:1 or a above compared with about 77% of students educated at state schools.

And at three Bs, 61% of independent students pupils got a 2:1 or above compared with 70% of state school students.

'Advantages'

Prof Madeleine Atkins, Hefce chief executive, said the findings confirmed an earlier study by her organisation.

But she stressed that this research, tracking around 80% of English-based undergraduates starting at all UK universities in a single year, was the most comprehensive of its kind.

The findings are important because it adds to the debate about how universities select their candidates.

Nearly all universities use what is known as "contextual data" to decide which candidates should be offered a place.

This is when those from state and other backgrounds are made lower offers, in terms of the A-levels required for entry to courses, than private school counterparts.

The idea behind this is that these pupils have not had the advantages of a private education but still have potential and should not miss out because they did not go to private school.

'Inform debate'

Prof Atkins said the report showed that independent school candidates came into university with better A-levels but that they were performing less well by the end of their degree courses. But she would not offer any explanation as to why this may be the case.

She said: "The study presents a robust and independent set of findings to inform discussion and debate, and to stimulate action. Further work - by Hefce, by the sector and by government - will be needed to understand why these effects are happening, and what sorts of interventions will be most effective in bringing about positive change."

But Barnaby Lenon, chairman of the Independent Schools Council, said: "Dividing the school population into 'state' and 'private' is too crude to yield anything of value.

"The majority of our pupils' A-levels were graded A or A* last summer and we note that Hefce, despite their best efforts, are unable to show that our pupils did less well at university than other groups."

Dr Wendy Piatt, director general of the Russell Group of high-performing universities, said: "As the report reiterates, A-level and equivalent qualifications are still, without doubt, the key source of information about academic ability.

"Students with better A-levels do better in higher education. But Russell Group universities take a range of factors into account when deciding which students are offered a place.

"So the candidate's qualifications are considered in a broader 'context'. The bottom line is we want to give places to the pupils with the qualifications, potential and determination to succeed."

The study also found that students from disadvantaged areas tended to do less well than those from more advantaged areas - even though they had achieved the same A-level grades.

Prof Les Ebdon, director of fair access to higher education, said: "This important research shows that a student's background influences their likely degree outcome.

"This is a worrying finding, suggesting that disadvantage continues to follow disadvantaged young people, even after they have overcome often significant barriers to get into university."

NO NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY IN WORLD'S FIRST 700 INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING

Culled from Daily Times

No Nigerian university is in the first 700 higher institutions of learning in the world and the first 18 in Africa, according to the QS World University Rankings 2015/16.

However, South Africa has nine institutions while Egypt has five. Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have one institution each.

“This is the 12th edition of QS’s annual ranking of the world’s top universities, which uses six performance indicators to assess institutions’ global reputation, research impact, staffing levels and international complexion,” the report said.

In Africa, the University of Cape Town, South Africa, is ranked first on the continent and 171st in the world. The Stellenbosch University, South Africa, is rated second in Africa and 302nd in the world. The University of the Witwatersrand is the third on the continent and 331st globally.

On the global scale, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States, scored 100 per cent to retain its top spot in the QS rankings for the fourth year consecutively. Harvard University (US) climbed two places to rank second, followed by the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom), and Stanford University (US) in joint third. MIT came first in the 2012 global rating – a position which Harvard and Cambridge universities had once occupied – and has remained there ever since.

“The primary aim of the QS World University Rankings is to help students make informed comparisons of leading universities around the world,” stated the report. “Based on six performance indicators, the rankings are designed to assess universities in four areas: research, teaching, employability and internationalisation. Each of the six indicators carries a different weighting when calculating the overall scores (see below). Four of the indicators are based on ‘hard’ data, and the remaining two are based on major global surveys – one of academics and another of employers – each the largest of their kind.”

The reports said the universities were placed on 40 per cent scale of academic reputation; employer reputation, 10 per cent; student-to-faculty ratio, 20 per cent; citations per faculty, 20 per cent; international faculty ratio, five per cent; and international student ratio, five per cent.

A total of 82 countries are represented in the QS World University Rankings this year, with the largest shares claimed by the US (154), UK (71), Germany (43) and France (41). Japan has 38 entries; Australia, 33; China, 30; Canada and Italy, 26 apiece; Brazil, 22; and Russia 21. After the US, UK, Switzerland and Singapore, the highest entry is claimed by Australia, with the Australian National University in joint 19th. France makes its first appearance with the École Normale Supérieure (ENS Paris) in 23rd place, followed by Canada’s McGill University in 24th. China’s top entrant, Tsinghua University, climbs 22 places to rank 25th while the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology gains 12 positions to reach 28th

Cost of Education in Ghana Is Too Expensive - Ghanaian MP's Cry Out

University and Senior High school education has become outrageously expensive.

That’s the verdict of the Minority in Parliament on Ghana’s educational system.
They believe astronomical increases in the cost of education are forcing many Ghanaians, especially parents to resort to illegitimate means to make ends meet.

According to the group, whilst fees in the senior high schools have witnessed a 170 percent increase in the last three years, the situation is even worse in the tertiary institutions.

Minority spokesperson on education, Professor Dominic Fobih told journalists at a news conference in Accra today, “the cost of education is becoming unbearable and out of reach of the ordinary Ghanaian”.

He cited for instance between 2008/2009 academic year and 2014/2015 academic year, university fees have increased by 738.2% in Humanities; 732.9% in Administration, Science and Agriculture; and 658.7% in Applied Sciences.

“No wonder most people these days are resorting to illegitimate means to make ends meet. Bribery and corruption are rampant and become the order of the day and the slogan, ‘the end justifies the means’ has become the catchphrase,” he said.

The former education minister also said despite government claims of achieving quality education at the basic level, figures available rather shows a gloomy picture for the sector.

Prof. Fobih also said non-payment of money to the statutory funds is resulting in low enrolment, strikes and inadequate provisions of educational materials.

“Senior High School students’ subsidy for feeding are always in arrears for months and heads of public senior high schools often have to threaten to close down schools before portions of arrears are released to them. Subsidy allocation of GHC8.7 million (38%) out of GHC22.7 million for senior high school students in 2010/2011 academic year was not released.

Click here to read more. 

A case for outdoor education in Nigeria

A case for outdoor education in Nigeria

Pupils can also learn outside the classroom

By Sina Adelaja-Olowoake

“ There’s no substitute for experience, so children should be given the opportunity to visit new places – and have a few adventures along the way “ - Mike Abraham

I have been waiting for a long time to do this article but having just finished working through the summer with a number of youth organizations at various summer camps in the United Kingdom, I felt there was no better time than now as most of summer camps made fantastic use of the outdoors.

Despite the great benefits associated with outdoor education, I am still at a loss as to why it is not yet a popular part of our education curriculum in Nigeria.

Outdoor education includes things like engaging in physical activities, going on excursions, camping, adventure treks to drawing lessons out in the open and going to observe certain insects or animals in relation to the biology lessons.  Pupils learn many skills by taking full advantage of the great outdoors – working on their own initiative as well as working as part of a team.  The activities they engage in challenge them helping them to find solutions by thinking outside the box.

However only a few schools are doing this. Many still do not see it as something that should be provided by the school – saying parents can help out at home.  While others say students are more likely to get hurt while out and about.

No matter the arguments against it, I think outdoor education is something that should be embraced widely.

A Call From Ghana - Why We Must Integrate Vocational Training Into Our educational System

Why We Must Integrate Vocational Training Into Our Educational System

Stephen L. Mensah

In recent times, a lot of questions have been raised concerning the quality of graduates our universities and polytechnics churn out. Many employers asserts that graduates from this institutions of higher learning do not have the skills they need to be useful at their firms and industries.

Even though universities and polytechnic curriculum developers have in liason with industries tried to develop and teach courses that are of relevance to solving Ghana's problem's. In addressing the issue of how a contemporary graduate in Ghana can be well trained and skilled to be relevant in solving much of Ghana's problems.

I recommend tertiary institutions in Ghana put in place measures for all student to take part in compulsory vocational training as part of their studies, every long vacation of their students life. this compulsory vocational training must be credited and graded which will count towards a students graduation requirement. if this is done students will have hands on training about much of Ghana’s problems in the communities and through applying creative thinking develop solution to tackle them.

In addition students will also be able to relate what they are been thought in the lecture halls, in the field during this vocational training. this will also help students to be part and parcel of local issues which needs urgent attention and address them accordingly through research.

Furthermore the most important aspect of the vocational training is that, students will be able to develop skills and experience which are very relevant to industry. it will give student local content of ideas, community issues, skills relevant to their studies, hands on practical experience and etc.

I want to use this opportunity to applaud university of development studies, university of health and allied sciences, nursing training colleges and our polytechnics for rigorously pursuing this and also to encourage the other tertiary institutions who have not made it a priority to see it as very efficient to make their graduates very useful after their completion.

Stephen L. Mensah

email: stevoo1150@gmail.com

Read more at: http://www.modernghana.com/news/640230/1/why-we-must-integrate-compulsory-vocational.html

Characteristics Of A Good School

The Characteristics Of A Good School

by Terry Heick

For professional development around this idea or others you read about on TeachThought, contact us.

When a society changes, so then must its tools.

Definitions of purpose and quality must also be revised continuously. What should a school “do”? Be? How can we tell a good school from a bad one?

This really starts at the human level, but that’s a broader issue. For now, let’s consider that schools are simply pieces of larger ecologies. The most immediate ecologies they participate in are human and cultural. As pieces in (human) ecologies, when one thing changes, everything else does as well. When it rains, the streams flood, the meadows are damp, the clovers bloom, and the bees bustle. When there’s drought, things are dry, and stale, and still.

When technology changes, it impacts the kinds of things we want and need. Updates to technology change what we desire; as we desire new things, technology changes to seek to provide them. The same goes for–or should go for–education. Consider a few of the key ideas in progressive education. Mobile learning, digital citizenship, design thinking, collaboration, creativity, and on a larger scale, digital literacy,1:1, and more are skills and content bits that every student would benefit from exposure to and mastery of. As these force their way into schools and classrooms and assignments and the design thinking of teachers, this is at the cost of “the way things were.”

When these “things” are forced in with little adjustment elsewhere, the authenticity of everything dies. The ecology itself is at risk.

The Purpose Of School In An Era Of Change

What should schools teach, and how? And how do we know if we’re doing it well? These are astoundingly important questions–ones that must be answered with social needs, teacher gifts, and technology access in mind. Now, we take the opposite approach. Here’s what all students should know, now let’s figure out how we can use what we have to teach it. If we don’t see the issue in its full context, we’re settling for glimpses.

How schools are designed and what students learn–and why–must be reviewed, scrutinized, and refined as closely and with as much enthusiasm as we do the gas mileage of our cars, the downloads speeds of our phones and tablets, or the operating systems of our watches. Most modern academic standards take a body-of-knowledge approach to education. This, to me, seems to be a dated approach to learning that continues to hamper our attempts to innovate.

Why can’t education, as a system, refashion itself as aggressively as the digital technology that is causing it so much angst? The fluidity of a given curriculum should at least match the fluidity of relevant modern knowledge demands. Maybe a first step in pursuit of an innovative and modern approach to teaching and learning might be to rethink the idea of curriculum as the core of learning models?

Less is more is one way to look at it, but that’s not new–power standards have been around for years. In fact, in this era of information access, smart clouds, and worsening socioeconomic disparity, we may want to consider whether we should be teaching content at all, or rather teaching students to think, design their own learning pathways, and create and do extraordinary things that are valuable to them in their place?

Previously we’ve assumed that would be the effect–that if students could read and write and do arithmetic and compose arguments and extract the main idea and otherwise master a (now nationalized) body of knowledge, that they’d learn to think and play with complex ideas and create incredible things and understand themselves in the process. That the more sound and full their knowledge background was, the greater the likelihood that they’ll create healthy self-identities and be tolerant of divergent thinking and do good work and act locally and think globally and create a better world.

A curriculum-first school design is based on the underlying assumption that if they know this and can do this, that thiswill be the result. This hasn’t been the case. We tend to celebrate school success instead of people success. We create “good schools” that graduate scores of students with very little hope for the future. How can that possibly be? How can a school call itself “good” when it produces students that don’t know themselves, the world, or their place in it?

So then, here’s one take on a new definition for a “good school.”

The Characteristics Of A Good School

A good school will improve the community it is embedded within and serves.

A good school can adapt quickly to human needs and technology change.

A good school produces students that not only read and write, but choose to.

A good school sees itself.

A good school has diverse and compelling measures of success–measures that families and communities understand and value.

A good school is full of students that don’t just understand “much,” but rather know what’s worth understanding.

A good school knows it can’t do it all, so seeks to do what’s necessary exceptionally well.

A good school improves other schools and cultural organizations it’s connected with.

A good school is always on and never closed. (It is not a factory.)

A good school makes certain that every single student and family feels welcome and understood on equal terms.

A good school is full of students that not only ask great questions, but do so with great frequency and ferocity.

A good school changes students; students change great schools.

A good school understands the difference between broken thinking and broken implementation.

A good school speaks the language of its students.

A good school doesn’t make empty promises, create noble-but-misleading mission statements, or mislead parents and community-members with edu-jargon. It is authentic and transparent.

A good school values its teachers and administrators and parents as agents of student success.

A good school favors personalized learning over differentiated learning.

A good school teaches thought, not content.

A good school makes technology, curriculum, policies, and its other “pieces” invisible. (Ever go to a ballet and see focus on individual movements?)

A good school is disruptive of bad cultural practices. These include intolerance based on race, income, faith, and sexual preference, aliteracy, and apathy toward the environment.

A good school produces students that know themselves in their own context, one that they know and choose. This includes culture, community, language, and profession.

A good school produces students that have personal and specific hope for the future that they can articulate and believe in and share with others.

A good school produces students that can empathize, critique, protect, love, inspire, make, design, restore, and understand almost anything–and then do so as a matter of habit.

A good school will erode the societal tendency towards greed, consumerism, and hording of resources we all need.

A good school is more concerned with cultural practices than pedagogical practices–students and families than other schools or the educational status quo.

A good school helps student separate trivial knowledge from vocational knowledge from academic knowledge from applied knowledge from knowledge-as-wisdom.

A good school will experience disruption in its own patterns and practices and values because its students are creative, empowered, and connected, and cause unpredictable change themselves.

A good school will produce students that can think critically–about issues of human interest, curiosity, artistry, craft, legacy, husbandry, agriculture, and more–and then do so.

A good school will help students see themselves in terms of their historical framing, familial legacy, social context, and global connectivity.

The Characteristics Of A Good School; image attribution flickr user usarmy

How Do You Choose A Good School For Your Child?

Sina Adelaja-Olowoake

It is September and the school gates will open to students again. Some of these students will be attending these schools for the first time while others will be returning to a familiar environment.  For a number of parents and guardians, the holiday period and even before that had been dedicated to  finding  “ a good school”  for their children. 

So how does one go about finding a good school?

There are those who will choose a school based on the national and international examination results. There are others who will choose a school based on the fees it charges believing in the unsubstantiated saying that ” if it’s expensive then it must be good”.  Yet there exists another group  who will only go by testimonials from parents who already have kids in these schools.  Some will however adopt a mix to help them arrive at a decision.

As a parenting skills strategist and youth mentor I believe your child is the most important factor and therefore should be at the centre of your decision making. But first, this will entail that you know your child very well. Then and only then can you start looking at schools that will support him or her in his learning process.  Are there any particular needs that may affect learning? If so which school  offers the best support ?

If your child is about to go to nursery or preschool, what you want to consider most is the relationship between the teacher and these little children most of whom are leaving their parents for the first time.  Is the classroom a loving, caring, environment? Do the children feel safe and secure?   Does the teacher demonstrate an understanding of the needs of these little ones?  The worst thing that can happen is to get this foundation wrong and throw the child into a harsh learning environment where their self confidence and emotional well being suffer terribly.  In really bad cases this has been known to affect some children right up to their teenage years.

For all the other age groups, the factors we listed earlier will come into play.  You are better off considering a number of factors rather than looking at one factor alone. For example if you based your decision on just examination results  alone,  a good score could mean that the school only teaches the students just  to pass examination . I remember investigating certain secondary schools in the UK and in Ghana. Apart from all the other factors I had earlier stated, I would then drive around the school location at closing time to see how the students behaved when unsupervised. To me this was a great opportunity to assess the students and see how they behaved in the real world.

Teachers qualifications, training and experience are also some of the things you may want to consider when looking at individual schools for your wards.  A school with high turnover rate of teaching staff is definitely one to treat with extreme caution. Are the teachers happy? Or are they being treated badly by the school’s management? Today in the developed world many schools are providing teachers with mentors just to get them to perform at their optimum. What sort of resources are available to the teachers in these schools?

Will your child be eating lunch provided by the school? Then you may want to know who the caterer is and if possible sample the menu.

Lastly ask questions. Don’t be intimidated by the management. Look out for subtle threats or sarcastic comments meant to dissuade you from probing further.  When you speak to the Head Teacher what kind of feedback do you get? Do they seem genuinely interested in education or to them its just another form of business? Remember it’s your child and you can never do too much to ensure they get the right footing in life. 

Pictures courtesy of Atlanta Black Star

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