Are free SHS graduates failing in our universities?

A professor at the University of Ghana (UG) recently made an eyebrow-raising claim.

He reportedly said that about 83 per cent of free SHS (or FSHS) graduates admitted to the UG cannot solve simple algebra problems, though finishing SHS with grade A in both Core and Elective Maths.

The claim, if true, is beyond troubling, and also feeds into the recent debates on whether FSHS graduates are increasingly in possession of West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results that they cannot justify. Pandemic learning loss?

Interestingly, in 2024, The Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper at Harvard University, reported that the Department of Mathematics at Harvard planning to “pilot a new introductory course aimed at rectifying a lack of foundational algebra skills among [its] students”—Harvard’s Director of Introductory Maths, Dr Brendan A.

Kelly, traced the lack of “foundational algebra skills” to a “pandemic learning loss”, suggesting that “the COVID-19 pandemic led to gaps in students’ math[s] skills and learning abilities, prompting the need for a new introductory course.

“Unfortunately, one cannot immediately tell if the reported lack of algebra skills among FSHS graduates at the UG is due to the challenges with the FSHS programme itself, or some other factors.

Perhaps just as Harvard traced the lack of foundational algebra skills among its students to the effects of COVID-19, the UG may establish a similar link considering that the early cohorts of FSHS graduates were in SHS during the pandemic years.

But this would beg the question of how these students easily obtained grade A in Core and Elective Maths in their WASSCE if they had weak foundations in these subjects.

Grading system

Or has the grading system for the WASSCE been adjusted in a way that may lead to weak scores yielding stellar grades? This could happen if the norm-referenced grading system is used.

In this system, the top 10 per cent of students in a subject, for example, would be awarded grade A1, and the next 20 per cent B2, etc. Thus, if the overall performance in a subject is poor, students with weak scores may still obtain a grade A1 once their scores fall within the top 10 per cent.

This grading system is different from the criterion-referenced grading system where the grading scale is predetermined such that only students with, say, 80–100 per cent would get a grade A1.

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has previously stated that the norm-referenced grading system is used for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).

But is it also used for the WASSCE? There is also the question of how exam malpractices may have been boosting student results.

Research needed

Even if there is anecdotal evidence pointing to FSHS graduates struggling to cope with university work, research into the issue will be necessary for two main reasons.

First, to determine whether there are any significant differences between the academic achievements of FSHS graduates and pre-FSHS graduates during their undergraduate studies.

And second, to isolate the causes, if there are indeed achievement differences. This will ensure that the right interventions are implemented to reverse the trend.

Educational researchers could take samples from the different cohorts of pre-FSHS and FSHS graduates to compare the university entry aggregates for both groups and the frequency of withdrawal of both groups from the university at the end of Level 100 due to poor academic performance.

The researchers may also analyse the average CGPA for both groups at the end of Levels 100 and 200.

This research should be possible because our universities have academic policies and regulations on student progression from one academic level to the next, and routinely withdraw students for poor academic performance.

Caveats

There will be many variables to control for to ensure that the results from the research hold. For example: Are the lecturers who taught the pre-FSHS and FSHS groups at the university equal in competence? Have the universities maintained their grading systems across these years?

What about their academic policy on student withdrawal on account of poor academic performance?

Any changes in policies must be accounted for. Of course, the lack of commensurate increase in the infrastructure in our universities to accommodate the increasing number of FSHS graduates may directly affect their performance too.

If the research results show that FSHS graduates generally cannot justify their WASSCE results as some have hypothesised, the research may be extended to include earlier pre-FSHS graduates, to determine if the resulting “falling performance” is merely a continuing trend, or if it just started with the FSHS graduates.

Data available

The data required for the research are available at the Academic Affairs Directorates of our universities.

Thus, it should be easy for researchers to do this research to help our nation determine where to go next in this unending FSHS debate. Our universities must take the lead on this. Ghana’s policy choices must be informed by research and credible research of course.

The writer is a scientist at the University of Cape Coast
Email: iagorsor@ucc.edu.g