Home EDUCATION Dismissed students refused to resit exams – Institute of Education

Dismissed students refused to resit exams – Institute of Education

The Professional Board of Institute of Education, University of Cape Coast has explained that it dismissed some students from its training colleges because of their refusal to re-sit examinations held in September 2015.

The board chaired by the Vice Chancellor of University of Cape Coast, Professor Domwini Dabire Kuupole, revealed this in a statement that also cited weak entry characteristics and low academic performance of some students in some courses, especially English, Science and Mathematics, as reasons for the dismissal per their new progression policy.

The implementation of this new Progression Policy has led to rioting on campuses of the Mampong Technical College of Education, the Akrokeri College of Education and the Wesley College of Education.

The riots were to protest the decision to withdraw students who reportedly failed mathematics among other subjects during examinations.

The board said the adoption of the new policy was necessitated by the upgrading of the Colleges of Education in Ghana to the Tertiary institutions per the Education Act 778 of 2008 and their affiliation to the University of Cape Coast. It also took the decision to implement the new policy because they realised the guidelines regarding progression and withdrawal of students were not harmonised across the different programmes run by the Institute of Education.

According to them, it is only fair to apply a common policy on academic progression to students who receive the same type of certificates from the University of Cape Coast but study in different institutions. This, they feel, will ultimately ensure parity of standards across the various training colleges.

The new academic progression policy was approved by the Professional Board for implementation with effect from the 2012/ 2013 academic year beginning with first year students.

The Implementation of the policy was however delayed for two years to enable the colleges to sufficiently educate their students to the policy.

According to the board, available evidence suggests that students in colleges were sufficiently educated on the policy hence the decision to incorporate it starting from the 2014/2015 academic year.

The board however implemented a concession that means students who failed in only one course, either at the main end-of-first semester or end-of-second semester examinations or the September, 2015 re-sit examinations and were withdrawn from the College, have been given an opportunity to register and take another re-sit examination on December 21, 2015.

Find below a section of the press statement signed by the Chairman of the Professional Board of  the Institute of Education: The New Academic Progression Policy 

In March, 2012, the Professional Board approved a new academic progression policy for use by the Colleges of Education in respect of the regular DBE programmes. The new policy is an adapted version of the university’s policy on progression.

Dismissal

A level 100 student who loses a total of twelve (12) credits or more registered for an academic year (either in the first, second or in both semesters) will be dismissed for poor academic performance for that academic year. Such a student may, however apply for re-admission the following academic year.

A level 100 student who loses 1 to 11 credits in either the first, second or both semesters shall be given an opportunity to write a supplementary end-of-semester examination before the start of the ensuing year. The supplementary end-of-semester examination for level 100 students shall be marked over 60 and shall be added to the continuous assessment score which the student would have obtained during the course of the semester.

The student will be withdrawn for poor academic performance if he/she is unable to pass all the failed courses in the supplementary end-of-semester examination. A Level 100 student who fails the supplementary end-of-semester examination and is withdrawn may re-apply for admission the following academic.

Implementation of The New Progression Policy

  • The new academic progression policy was approved by the Professional Board for implementation with effect from the 2012/ 2013 academic year beginning with first year students.
  • Implementation of the policy was however delayed for two years to enable the Colleges to sufficiently educate and sensitize their students to the policy. Available evidence suggests that this was done.
  • The Colleges have since gone ahead to incorporate the policy in their students’ handbooks. The implementation began with students who gained admission to the Colleges in the 2014/2015 academic year.

Causes Of Withdrawal/External Candidacy Of Students

The following constitute some of the factors/reasons for the withdrawal or external candidacy:

  1. Weak entry characteristics of some students (some students enrolling onto programmes for which they did not have the relevant background preparation at the Senior High School Level in terms of elective subjects)
  2. Low academic performance of some students in some courses especially English, Science and Mathematics.
  3. Outright refusal of some students to write the re-sit examinations held in September 2015

Concessions Given

  1. Notwithstanding implementation of the new policy, a number of concessions were granted to students to whom the policy was being applied to for the first time in the Colleges of Education. These concessions were as follows:
  2. Even though the policy on progression from Level 100 to Level 200 states that “A level 100 students who loses a total of twelve (12) credits or more registered for an academic year (either in the first, second or in both semesters) will be dismissed for poor academic performance for that academic year. Such a student may, however, apply for re-admission the following year”, this was not rigidly applied. All level 100 students, regardless of the number of credits they lost, were allowed to write the re-sit examinations in September, 2015.
  3. First year (Level 100) students who failed or deliberately refused to write the re-sit examinations and should have been withdrawn from College in line with the policy which states that “A candidate who fails to attend any part of an examination except on medical or other legitimate grounds shall be deemed to have failed the examination” have been made External Students and therefore have another opportunity to redeem themselves
  4. All first year (Level 100) students who failed in only one course [either at the main end-of-first semester or end-of-second semester examinations or the September, 2015 re-sit examinations and have been withdrawn from the College] have been given an opportunity to register and take another re-sit examination on 21st December, 2015.

 

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