News: Amhara State Education Bureau requests university entrance deadline extension, sends team to federal exam agency
Addis Abeba– Amhara regional state education bureau announced that it has sent a team to the National Educational Assessment And Examination Agency (NEAEA) for discussions on exam result irregularities that the region said has affected thousands of students who sat for this year’s school leaving exam. The bureau also requested the Ministry of Education to extend the deadline for the entrance date of students’ admission to universities citing irregularities in the exam results.
The regional state education bureau has already complained about rampant exam result irregularities in this academic year’s school leaving exam results. The region has already said that out of 42 schools in North Wollo Zone, 679 students who sat for school leaving exams in six schools have failed the university entrance results, which pointed at irregularities of the grading system. The schools where these irregularities were observed are Girana, Kalim, Kul Mesek, Gurgur Debreroha, Hanamukat Debresina and Kebebew secondary schools, according to the regional media.
Furthermore, North Wollo Zone Education Department examiner and administration expert Mulu Adane said last week that the zone has been in a state of war for more than five months and students in the region were still not fully prepared to sit for the exams. She said it was inappropriate for students to take exams without recovering from the psychological damage caused by the war. The zone said that of the 9,710 students who sat for the exam only 3,567 students scored university entrance marks. Several other districts have since fielded similar complaints on result irregularities.
The regional education bureau said today that the aim of the team sent to NEAEA was to resolve the controversies regarding exam results and added that it was doing everything in its power to amend the problematic exam results that disappointed the local community. The team included experts from the regional Education Bureau, members of Amhara Intellectuals Council, and a team drawn from school directors and teachers’ representatives in the regional state.
Last Friday the bureau wrote a letter addressed to the Ministry of Education requesting extension on the date of students admission to universities citing irregularities in the students exam results. In the letter the bureau stated that the exam irregularities are raising questions among educational institutions leadership and community. The bureau requested the dates to be extended until the students’ result is reviewed thoroughly and consensus is reached.
This comes days after the regional Education Bureau requested a clarification from the Ministry of Education on the matter.
However, Tefera Feyisa, Deputy Director General of Exams Services at the National Educational Assessment And Examination Agency, said that the Agency had looked into more than 20, 000 complaints for review and corrections. According to him, the Agency’s efforts to conduct exam corrections and accommodate complaints were done carefully and free of human contact. However, he admitted that there were technical problems during the evaluation of the second round examination. According to him, the problem occurred on less than 559 students, which was reviewed and subsequently corrected.
The Ministry of Education, on its part, has provided further clarification on the 12th grade matriculation results and the university entrance pass marks. According to the Ministry of Education, a total of 152,144 students have been assigned to study in 43 public universities, which is higher than last year’s enrollment capacity of 147, 000 students in 47 public universities. AS
