EduWatch breaks down ‘Stanine Grading System’ for BECE grading
Following the release of the 2023 Basic Education Certificate Examination results, Africa Education Watch has explained the Stanine Grading System used by the West African Examinations Council to grade students who sat for the 2023 BECE.
The Director of the education think tank, Kofi Asare in a social media post sighted by AcademicWeek.com said the Standard Nine (Stanine) grading system is norm-referenced, meaning, the structure of the results is pre-determined.
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“Under Stanine, the % of candidates who will obtain Grades 1-9 is virtually fixed, so you must justify your inclusion to enter that percentage bracket,” the Africa Education Watch (EduWatch) Executive Director said in the post.
Ended on Friday, August 11, 2023, with more than 600,000 candidates participating in the 33rd edition of the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). This is how the Stanine grading system applies:
1. Only the best scoring 4% (24,000) of candidates who sit for a subject paper can get Grade 1.
2. Automatically, the next 7% (42,000) of candidates who sit for a subject paper obtain Grade 2
3. Automatically, the next 12% (72,000) of candidates who sit for a subject paper obtain Grade 3
4. Automatically, the next 17% (102,000) of candidates who sit for a subject paper obtain Grade 4.
5. Automatically, the next 20% (120,000) of candidates who sit for a subject paper obtain get Grade 5.
6. Automatically, the next 17% (102,000) of candidates who sit for a subject paper obtain get Grade 6
7. And the last 4% ( 24,000) will always get Grade
“This means, you can have 90% in Mathematics and still be in the second 7% (Grade 2), simply because 4% of candidates had 91-100% in that subject. Again, not more than 4% can have Grade 1,” Kofi Asare further explained.
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Was the Stanine Grading System tested or piloted before applying to the students?. This is certainly not a good way to access the JHS students at national level. I appeal to West Africa Examination Council to take a second look at the system and do something about the provisional results released.
You may want to know the over all best students in a particular subject nationwide but it leaves hard working students who did not copy or did not get the chance to see leaked exam questions demoralized. The National Maths and science quiz is a good way to determine brilliant and hard working students.
Since the release of the results, I have seen a number of good students crying and refused to eat because they feel they have let their parents down. In my opinion I don’t think the Stanine Grading System is the best approach. The Stanine Grading System can be done at the school or district level but certainly not good at the national level due the number of students who sit for the BECE exams.
This simply means that there’s no pass mark for BECE anymore. How can you go into an examination without knowing the pass mark for the papers you’re going to sit?