STATE BASED TRANSITION AND MOCK EXAMINATIONS AS PREDICTORS OF STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL EXAMINATION IN KOGI STATE

ABSTRACT

The  purpose  of  this  study  was  to  determine  the  extent  to  which  Transition  and  Mock examinations predict the student achievement in SSCE. The design of the study was correlational survey research design carried out in Kabba/Bunu and Mopamuro local government areas in the western  senatorial  district  of  Kogi  state.  The  population  comprised  of  9,677  secondary  II students who sat for Transition examination in 2013/2014 academic session and wrote Mock examination in first term SS III. A sample of 520 students from the two local government areas was drawn using proportionate stratified sampling technique. The instrument used for the data collection was students’ grade chart (SGC). It was a standardized pro-forma. It was designed in such a way that the students’ grades could be obtained in STANINE form, that is, A1, B2, B3, C4, C5, C6, D7, E8 and F9 and assigned 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 respectively.. The questions were answered using descriptive statistics and the hypotheses were tested at .05 level of significance using Regression Analysis of variance (ANOVA). Major findings of the study showed that; (1) Transition and Mock Examinations in Mathematics are good predictors of SSCE Mathematics. Transition  and Mock scores accounted  for 58% of the variance of students’ achievement in SSCE Mathematics. (2)There was a good prediction of SSCE English Language by Transition and Mock Examinations. Transition and Mock Examinations in English Language predicted 42% of the total variance of the students’ achievement in SSCE English Language. (3) Transition and Mock Examinations  in  Physics  are  good predictors  of SSCE  Physics. Transition  and  Mock scores accounted for 38% of the variance of students’ achievement in SSCE Physics. (4) The prediction  of Transition  and  Mock  Examinations  in  Chemistry  was  good.  50% of the total variance of students’ achievement in Transition and Mock Chemistry accounted for students’ achievement in SSCE Chemistry. (5) Transition and Mock Examinations in Biology are good predictors of SSCE Biology. Transition and Mock scores accounted for 37% of the variance of students’ achievement in SSCE Biology. (6) The combination of Transition and Mock Examinations  scores  jointly accounted  for 72% of the variance of students’ achievement  in SSCE. Based on these findings, it was recommended among others that Kogi state ministry of Education  should  ensure  that  the  selection  of  students  for  SSCE  is  maintained  while  the Transition Examination is sustained and the repackaged Mock Examination is improved upon for better performance in these external examinations.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

There  are examination  bodies  that  are  charged  with  the  responsibility  of conducting standardized examinations in Nigeria for certification of senior secondary schools. The bodies are, West African Examinations Council (WAEC), the National Examinations Council (NECO), National Business and Technical Board (NABTEB) and so on.

According to the report made available by WAEC (2015), the University of Cambridge Local Examination Syndicate, University of London School Examinations Matriculation Council and West African Department of Education met in 1948 concerning Education in West Africa. Dr. George Barker Jeffery was appointed in the meeting to visit some West African States to see the general education level. The report given by Jeffery (1950) supported the proposal of a West African Examinations Council and making detailed recommendation and duties of the council. The report was adopted without reservation by the four West African governments (Nigeria, Gambia, Ghana and Sierra Leone) and an ordinance (WAEC ordinance No 40) establishing the council as a corporate  body was drafted  by the West African  Inter-Territorial  secretariat  in consultation with the governments.

Nigerian government provided accommodation  for the body in 1953. To this effect, a block at the Technical Institute, Yaba was given to WAEC. The four countries that are members are – Nigeria, Gambia, Ghana and Sierra-Leone.

The following are the categories of Examinations conducted by the body;

1)  National Examinations – These are restricted to the specific member countries for which they are developed and reflect their local policies, needs and aspirations.

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2)  International Examinations – These are developed for candidates in all the member countries.

The West African  Senior School Certificate  Examination  (WASSCE)  is one  of such examinations. Students must have at least five credit passes including English Language and Mathematics to gain admission to study in the university. Because of the importance of these external examinations to students, adequate preparation must therefore be made to help students achieve highly in them.

Different attempts have been made by school administrators to prepare students for these Examinations.  Mock has been  the  popular  form  of Examination  conducted  to  help  prepare students for these external examinations. But mock examinations conducted both at school and sectorial levels have been criticized by many scholars as being biased and subject to teachers’ manipulations which makes it inadequate to be used to predict the performance of students in external Examinations. Students are not being judged equally as different types of Mock Examinations  are conducted by teachers in various  schools  and different senatorial districts. There is no uniformity of examinations taken by students to prepare them for the same external examinations. Standards differ from school to school and from district to district.

The items in these Mock examinations conducted at school and district levels are not standardized to ascertain the psychometric properties of the items. This makes the examination unparallel with the external examinations that are developed in a standard form by experts which have known psychometric properties. The standardization ensures the parameters like; the difficulty index, discriminating index and the distractor index.

To better prepare the students for these external examinations, Kogi State government in

2008  introduced  an examination  called Transition  examination  which  was borne  out of the government’s interest in looking for a reliable ground of preparation for students to perform

better in the external examinations. Transition examination is taken in Senior Secondary II (SS II) in third term. It serves two major purposes of promotion examination to Senior Secondary III (SS III) and  also prepares  the students for external  examinations. The examination  is taken throughout the state and under the same examination conditions as these external examinations and marked centrally by the teachers who indicate interest and are paid like examiners in the external examinations. Transition Examination was also designed to have a motivating feature.

The  government’s  policy  that  established  the  Transition  examination  in  Kogi  state includes:

1)  The examination  is for students transiting  from  SS2  to SS3  in all government approved secondary schools in the state.

2)  The examination should be called Kogi State Common Transition Examination.

3)  All subjects examined by WAEC and NECO and offered in Kogi schools are to be tested.

These  include,  among  others;  English  Language,  Mathematics,  Biology,  Chemistry  and

Physics.

4)  The items will be generated by subjects’ specialists teaching the students in schools within the state.

5)  There  will  be  item  writing  and  moderation  exercises  involving  experts.  Four  subject specialists per subject will be involved for item generation and moderation.

6)  Conduct the Examination;

  All schools will be centres.

  Vice principals will supervise the examinations in schools other than theirs.

  The principals will provide resources for test of practical.

  Principals are to provide resources for packaging of worked scripts.

  Principals   are  to  deliver  worked   scripts  to   the   Area   Inspectorate   of  Education

(AIE)/custodian after the examination.

7)  Marking exercises;

  Zonal marking to be coordinated by zonal AIEs and monitored by officials of Ministry of

Education (MOE).

  Zonal AIEs will appoint markers.

  Zonal AIEs will receive scripts from principals or AIE/custodians.

  Zonal AIEs will brief and coordinate team leaders and assistant examiners.

  Payment of assistant examiners and team leaders will be at the zonal centres.

8) Processing of results

  Collation of results by MOE.

  Computerization to be handled by the MOE.

9) Release of results and promotion parameter to be determined by MOE.

  At least passes in five subjects including English Language and Mathematics.

  Candidates who failed will repeat the SS 2 class.

  Candidates who repeated once may be promoted if he/she should fail again.

The government motivates the students by paying the WAEC fee of any student that passed  at five  credit  level  including  English  Language  and  Mathematics.  The  objectives  of Transition examination include;

i)   To  organize  qualifying  examination  into  Senior  Secondary  III  (SS  III)  from  Senior

Secondary II (SS II)

ii)  To standardize the quality of students that will present for WAEC.

iii) To create a platform for ready candidates for government sponsorship in terms of payment of

WAEC registration, and

iv) To curb the menace of examination malpractice in terms of registering external candidates who are not prepared for the examination (Kogi State Ministry of Education, 2008).

There have been better performances in the Transition Examination that would have been expected to reflect in the students’ performances in the external examinations, but it has not been so. Despite  all the government’s  efforts  in funding this examination  and paying the WAEC SSCE registration  fee of students that passed  with five credits in subjects including English Language and Mathematics, the performances of students in external examinations are still poor. There is a need, therefore, to further prepare students to curb this menace of mass failure in the external examinations.

To better strengthen the preparedness of students for the external examinations, Kogi state government, in year 2012, repackaged mock examination to be conducted centrally and in the same examination conditions as these external examinations. It is taken in the first term of SS III. The examination papers are equally marked centrally by teachers. Recently, the result of the mock examination was published and given out to students and could be accessed on the internet which is different from the usual practice of keeping the results with the school principals. All these are done by the government to equip the students for the public (eternal) Examinations.

Public examinations  are viewed  as external school examinations opened  to the general public  and  conducted  by  examination  bodies  using  tests  that  have  known  psychometric properties. These are better developed  than  the ones prepared  by the teachers in  the school setting (Adeyegbe, 2004). The examinations are the sense that the examining boards conducting these  examinations  did  not  themselves  prepare  students  for the examinations.  They are  the

examinations that are designed and organised under specific terms and conditions and are based on norms that were regarded as standards (Adeyemi, 2008). To know the students’ standing in these examinations, therefore, students must be evaluated.

Evaluation is seen as a qualitative description of students’ behavior. No matter how efficient  the  teacher  is, how intelligent  the  students  are  and how adequate  the  audio-visual equipment, if no provision is made for the evaluation of the students’ progress, the teaching effort may be completely invalidated. Evaluation concerns determining the quality of the curriculum, the facilities available and performance of pupils, using various tools. Test is one of such tools for evaluation (Obinne, 2011). The practical relevance of these tests and their testing is largely dependent on their levels of reliability, validity, difficulty and discrimination. Validity is, according to the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, “the most fundamental consideration in developing and evaluating tests” (Hogan & Angello, 2004).

Tests   are   administered   in   these   examinations   (Transition,   Mock   and   external examinations) to know the level of achievement of students. Test could be used as a measuring instrument to predict the academic performance of students in the future. Such test that could be used to predict students’ achievement must be valid.

Validity is the extent to which a test measures what it ought to measure. Validity are of different types. One of the types of validity is criterion-related validity. This type of validity is concerned with the degree to which the performance on an instrument can estimate or predict performance  in  other  situations.  The  measures  from  the  instrument  are  referred  to  as  the predictor  variable  or  (predictor),  whereas  the  performance  in  another  situation  which  the instrument  is  supposed  to  predict  is  called  the  criterion  variable.  As  related  to  this  study, Transition  and  Mock  Examinations  are  the  predictor  variables  while  SSCE  is  the  criterion

variable. Criterion-related validity is sub-divided into two viz; concurrent validity and predictive validity. Concurrent validity has to do with when the criterion score is obtained about the same time with the test score, that is, when the two scores are gotten concurrently.

Predictive  validity  is the extent  to  which  a person’s  present  scores  can  be  used  to estimate the future performance. Predictive validity is intended  to predict how a person  will perform at a later date on a different of assessment of his/her abilities using the performance measures of the present (Garson, 2008). Emaikwu (2011) stated that predictive validity refers to how accurately a person’s current test score can be used to estimate what the criterion score would be at the later time. Mock and Transition examinations are the predictor variables that will be used to predict the performance of students in SSCE (criterion measure). Gall, Gall, and  Borg (2007) were of the view that predictive validity is the  degree to which the predictions made by tests are confirmed by the later benaviour of the subjects. They maintained that much educational research is concerned with the prediction of success in various activities.

The aim of the government in Kogi state is to use Transition and Mock examinations to prepare the students to have better performance in the external examinations. Therefore the need to ascertain the predictive validity of these examinations whether they can be used to predict the achievement of students in SSCE. Despite all these efforts by the government, the poor achievement of students in these external examinations has become worrisome and hence the need for this study to see how both Mock and Transition examinations predict the students’ achievement  in  SSCE.  This  will  give  a direction  on  whether  to  repackage  or  discard  the examinations and think of a better one.

The researcher used Mathematics, English Languate, Physics, Chemistry and Biology as subjects of prediction because Mathematics and English Language are compulsory subjects in

secondary schools and are core subjects which must be passed at credit level for students to be able to pursue their academic career while Physics, Chemistry and Biology are science based subjects. According to the Federal Republic of  Nigeria (2013), core subjects are basic subjects that enable a student to offer Arts or science in higher education. Without a solid foundation in Mathematics,  meaningful  advancement  in  science  and  Technology  would  not  be  made. According to Kolawole and Udoh (2012), Mathematics is the tool in the development of science based knowledge such as technology, industry and, even, for sound analytical reasoning in daily living in the present age. Also without a solid foundation in English Language, students may not be able to make a head way in art related courses.Adesoji (2008) asserted that abilities in English Language  do  influence  knowledge  of students  in  other subjects  in  the curriculum.  Physics, Chemistry and Biology are the major science subjects that qualifies and enable students to study science related courses in the Nigerian higher institutions of learning (FME, 2013).

For students to perform better in an examination that will determine how far they can go in life, in terms of education therefore, the predictive validity of such an examination ought to be ascertained. Hence the need for this study since it was discovered that no research work had been carried out, to the best of the researcher’s knowledge, on the predictive validity of transition examination  since  its inception  in  Kogi  state  in  2008  and Mock Examination  when  it was reparkaged in 2012.

Statement of the Problem

Generally, mock examinations  are used to predict students’ performance  in  the main examination the transition examination serves the same purpose. Mock examination as a trial examination  is  selective  , predictive  and  diagnostic  in  nature  which  shows  how  successful teachers’ instructions have been mastered. Prediction can not be established if the examination

that  is  to  serve  as  predictor  does  not  have  close  relationship,  in  terms  of  the  correlation coefficient,   with the criterion  variable. The value of the correlation coefficeint between  the criterion and the predictor variables could qualify it, or otherwise, as an examination that can actually serve as the basis of prediction. In other word, it is when the predictive  validity is ascertained that the examination can be reliably used to predict future occurrence. Despite the introduction of these Examinations (Transtition and Mock), the achievement of students in the external Examinations is still worrisome. Since the introduction of  the transition examination in Kogi State in 2008 and Centralized Mock Examination in 2012, no study has been carried out, to determe  their  predictive  validities  suggest  whether  to  continue  using  them  to  prepare  the secondary school students  for their final examination  in either WAEC, NECO or NABTEB conducted examinations. Hence the need for this study as it seeks to determine the predictive validity of these examinations.  The question, therefore, is what is the predictive  validity of Transition and Centralized Mock Examinations in Kogi state?

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is to determine  the extent  to  which  Transition  and  Mock

Examinations predict the achievement of students in SSCE. Specifically, the study seeks to;

1)  Determine the extent to which Transition and Mock Examinations in Mathematics predict students’ achievement in SSCE Mathematics,

2)  Determine the extent to which Transition and Mock Examinations in English Language precict students’ achievement in SSCE English Language,

3)  Determine the extent to which Transition and Mock Examinations in Physics predict the achievement of students in SSCE Physics

4)  Determine the extent to which Transition and Mock Examinations in Chemistry predict the achievement of students in SSCE Chemistry

5)  Determine the extent to which Transition and Mock Examinations in Biology predict the achievement of students in SSCE Biology.

6)  Determine  which  of  the  of  the  Examinations,  Transition  or  Mock,  best  predict  the achievement of students in SSCE.

Significance of the Study

The findings of this study would have both theoretical and practical significance.

Theoretically,  the  findings  of  this  study  will  support  the  theory  of  regression.  In regression, several pairs of values of two variables; say X and Y are usually taken on the same individuals as indicated in the equation Y= a + bX. Where Y is the dependent variable or the variable to be predicted, X is the predictor or independent variable and a and b are constants. The constant are usually calculated using the values of X and Y . When only two variables are involved (X and Y), the regression is said to be simple. But when more than two variables are involved, it is called multiple regression. In this study, Transition and Mock Examinations are the predictor variables which could Classical Test Theory (CTT) which be denoted as X1 and X2 respectively, while the SSCE will be the criterion variable (Y).

Practically  this  study  is  significant  to;  the  school  administrators,  researchers,  the examination bodies, students and teachers, government, parents and guardian. Practically, the school administrators through it would know which of the Examinations (Transition and Mock) best predicts the achievement of students in SSCE. This will help in improving on the level of instruction in terms of teaching,   how to formulate and implement policies that will enhance teaching and learning for an improvement in the Educational sector.

Other researchers will benefit from the result of this study as it serves as a reference point to other researchers. This will form the basis upon which they would stand as an existing study on the predictive validity to enrich their work or the take off point for them.

Moreover, the outcome of this study will help the teacher and students alike to predict the academic  achievement  in SSCE.  Students  can be encouraged  to be more  serious  with their studies while the teachers take the exams (transition and mock examinations) seriously with the students.

It can be an eye opener to the government whether to continue funding the examination and motivating the students by paying their WAEC fees in Senior Secondary School III (SS III) so as to encourage them study hard and attain a greater height in their academic pursuit.

The findings of this study will equally be of great benefit to the society at large as it will encourage both parents and guardians to monitor and keep watch over their children to use the Transition and Mock Examinations as preparatory grounds for their children and wards.

Scope of the Study

The study is delimited to two core subjects and three science subjects as Mathematics, English Language, Physics, Chemistry and Biology . It is also delimited to the 2013 Transition Examination in SSII, 2014 Mock Examination in the beginning of the session in SSIII as well as

2014 WAEC SSCE in the subjects in Kogi State. Using all the subjects will be cumbersom.

Research Questions

The following research questions were posed to guide the study.

i)   To  what  extent  do  Transition  and  Mock  Examinations  in  Mathematics  predict  the acheivement of students in WAEC  SSCE Mathematics?

ii)  To what extent do Transition and Mock Examinations in English Language predict the acheivement of students in the WAEC SSCE English Language?

iii)  To   what  extent  do  Transition   and   Mock   Examinations   in   Physics   predict   the achievement of students in WAEC SSCE Physics?

iv) To  what  extent  do  Transition  and  Mock  Examinations  in  Chemistry  predict  the achievement of students in WAEC SSCE Chemistry?

v)  To what extent do Transition and Mock Examinations in Biology predict the achievement of students in WAEC SSCE Biology?

vi) Which of the Examinations, Transition or Mock, best predict the students’ achievement in WAEC SSCE?

Hypotheses

The following null  hypotheses were tested at .05  level of significance;

i)   Performace   in   Transition   and   Mock   examinations   do   not   significantly   predict performance in WAEC SSCE  Mathematics.

ii)   Performace   in   Transition   and   Mock   examinations   do   not   significantly   predict performance in WAEC SSCE  English Language.

iii) Performace   in   Transition   and   Mock   examinations   do   not   significantly   predict performance in WAEC SSCE  Physics.

iv) Performace   in   Transition   and   Mock   examinations   do   not   significantly   predict performance in WAEC SSCE  Chemistry.

v)  Performace   in   Transition   and   Mock   examinations   do   not   significantly   predict performance in WAEC SSCE  Biology.

vi) There is no significance difference  in the predictive  validity of Transition  and Mock

Examinations.

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