The national examinations for grade 10 and 12 which have been conducted for the last two weeks and the subsequent shut down of the Internet compelled me to think about the examination process and its quality control endeavours.
But I do not intend to write about the possibility of exam leakages and cheating practices at high school level. Rather, I prefer to talk about exams and the examination process at some Ethiopian universities, an area which I believe I know better.
The purpose of a university is not only to give an educational degree but also to imbibe qualities in the youth, which will ultimately help the country to grow in the future and achieve its short and long term economic as well as political goals. To meet that, it requires an education system that adapts and adjusts itself to country needs from time to time.
Education has a very long and strong impact on the political as well as the economic system of any country. For a sustainable economic growth, it is mandatory that different sectors have access to the required human resource at the right time and of appropriate quality. This is possible only by having an effective and efficient education system.
In the networked market economy of the globe, political and economic influences largely come from the quality of human resources development that countries cultivate. An individual state can only destroy another state by paralysing its economy and political policies. And these are highly connected to the people’s psyche and influenced by education systems.
The other major and most effective way that a country can destroy the economy of another is by dumping products which are of low quality and much more in number than required into its market. This shows that if the balance of supply and demand is lost, it is resilient to paralyse the economy in the short term and annihilate in the long term.
The same is true for the education industry. If low-quality students are produced more than what the economy can absorb in Ethiopia, they will act like dumping in their country. Because they will not get jobs; even if they get jobs but do not have appropriately paid ones, they will get frustrated.
Needless to say, such a group of the society and students are the perfect tool for some miscreants to create problems and this may lead to massive political as well as economic problems.
Education is associated with a change in personality and lifestyle. People believe that if their children are educated their future will be good.
But is this true for all countries in reality?
Many countries are producing a lot of engineers and graduates, but their economy is not growing at the expected rate. However, it is surprising to realise that the rate at which unemployment is growing is more than the economic growth rate of some of the countries. And the type of unemployment has different layers. In many such countries, people are educated with a college degree but cannot get the right job at the right time and of the right salary. Indeed, this is not good for any country.
Ethiopian universities command an influential position when it comes to Ethiopia and some countries in Africa. However, the same is not true when the Ethiopian universities are compared with other African universities, including its neighbours like Kenya and other leading universities in South Africa.
Ethiopia is still far behind on access to higher education, not to mention the quality of its programmes. As much as the quality of a product is associated with branding and value of money, university graduates are also determined by the ability they have in their respective workplaces and the salary they get. Hence, the job of producing quality graduates is also a matter of country branding and becoming effective in the ever competitive global political economy.
Depending upon the quality of students Ethiopian universities produce, they get brands at home and internationally. But it is also about the image and brand of the country. No multinational companies and big business organisations look for less competent employees. And these are areas where countries can also influence the global order.
Unlike the expectation of many students and parents, inflated grades may not help in the workplace. It is the capability and knowledge compatibility of graduates to an organisation that matters most. The main focus of employers is becoming whether the product of a university is good enough to be part of their organisation and will be an asset to it in the long run.
As it should be, the good corporations use a set of psychological and knowledge tests instead of only taking the grades for granted. It is not less common these days to observe that some graduates with top grades may not fit working environments or are not able to pass job entrance exams, and do not get the right job at the right time.
It can happen, among others, when the graduates have to get the grade inappropriately, including the influence of a student on the teacher by money, favour, political pressure, personal links or relatives and affiliation in religion and other orientations. Of course, it can also be due to the substandard examination process that comes as a result of irrelevant curriculum and poorer quality of teachers.
The case in Ethiopia is not different. There is a massive problem associated with the quality of exam administration and the checking process in the education sector.
In almost all Ethiopian universities, a teacher who handles a subject controls entirely the examination and all sorts of assessment systems related to that subject. And that is too risky for maintaining the quality of education in the country.
I firmly believe that the teaching and learning process in the universities should be separated from the examination process to reduce human error and enhance the quality of the education in universities.
This can be done by the universities themselves without hiring a new workforce or needing new infrastructure. The existing assets can be used effectively to do it without incurring any extra cost.
The arrangements can be many and different, depending on the creativity of individual universities. However, the situation forces one to suggest that an independent exam administration process would help improve the quality of education in the universities.
Teaching well is not enough for the creditability of the universities and quality of the graduates. The independence and transparency of exams equally matter.
I believe that Ethiopian students have tremendous potential and if they are trained and evaluated properly, the quality, brand and image of the universities can be enhanced enormously and quickly.
Having quality graduates would also mean productive citizens; the more the good quality of citizens the more is the chance of the country to develop fast and improve governance.
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