BECE marking scheme, grading system fair, not favoritism – WAEC

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) says the marking scheme and grading system used for Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) do not favour any student who sits for the national examination.

An official of the Council speaking at a forum said the same marking scheme and grading system over the years has been used in assessing the performance of students, always, irrespective of their schools, whether private or public.

“A final marking scheme is developed for each subject at the end of the preliminary coordination meeting, and all examiners use this final marking scheme to mark scripts of all candidates for that subject,” the WAEC official said.

The staff of the Examinations Council at the forum said the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) grading system is used for certification and second-cycle school selection into secondary level.

“Such untrue statements about marking schemes and grading mislead members of the public and create unnecessary anxiety amongst school authorities, candi­dates and their parents,” the WAEC official noted.

Explaining the grading sys­tem, a former WAEC Officer in charge of Test Examination, Measure­ment and Evaluation, Mr Felix Akuffo-Badoo, said the ‘Stanine’ grading system being used for examination is the short form for Standard nine.

He said it was introduced by the United States Army and Air Force in 1942, and in the early years of the educational reforms, the system was found to be the best that could be used for both certification and selection.

Under the nine-unit scale ranging from one to nine, Mr Akuffo-Badoo said, average performance was five, highest performance nine, and lowest performance one, and that fixed percentages are used in determining the grades.

He explained the candi­dates whose marks fell within the top four per cent of the cohort for any subject ob­tain Grade 1 in that subject; those in the next seven per cent obtain Grade 2, and those in the next one per cent obtain Grade ,3 and in that order.

Mr Akuffo-Badoo said the system ranks and compares students in relation to each other with advantages, including easy com­puting, no human intervention and financial implications, quick understanding of test scores, while it was good for deletion from large groups.

However, he said, the system could not be used to compare results across years nor reward teachers for improved performance, and thus called for the adoption of a system that would reflect variations in yearly performances.

The forum attended by stakeholders, including heads of schools and directors of education, was organised to clarify concerns raised by stakeholders about discrimination and unfairness in the grading system being used by the WAEC.

Relatedly, The management of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) says it uses one marking scheme in assessing all Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) across the country.

“The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has never used two different marking schemes for candidates of BECE in private and public schools,” the not-for-profit-making organization clarfied.