Director of Public Affairs at West African Examination Council (WAEC), John Kapi has noted that the Council has no authority to choose which grading system to use for BECE candidates.
The Stanine grading system which has been in place since 1990 and used to grade BECE candidates has recently been criticised by some parents of BECE candidates. They argue that the grading system in its current format is not a “good” system to grade BECE candidates.
He explained in an interview that the Ghana Education Service (GES) has the outright mandate to choose which grading system to grade BECE candidates.
“It is not out of place for people to want to seek reference with WAEC, that is correct but then for a final decision to be taken on this grading system, they have to address their concerns to the Ghana Education Service…the decision should come from the Ghana Education Service and not from WAEC.
“Decisions concerning the BECE in particular are solely that of the Ghana Education Service. There are a few situations where as WAEC we would be able to introduce few changes but even that we would have to do that in collaboration with the GES.
“As a council, we cannot on our own decide to change the grading system because whenever the results are ready, we hand everything over to the GES and they continue with it from there,” he stated.
He further dismissed the notion that the Stanine grading system does not represent actual performance of BECE candidates.
“Let me just make this addition maybe people think that the Stanine grading system does not necessarily represent the performance of the candidates, it is entirely untrue,” Mr. Kapi clarified.
John Kapi explained that the system grades a candidates’ performance based on “comparison with other people within your own circle of students studying the same thing and being examined on the same thing.”
This grading system, a norm‑referenced approach fixes the share of students in each grade rather than using absolute score thresholds.
Under Stanine, only a predetermined percentage of candidates can get each grade – roughly 4% earn Grade 1 (the top stanine), 7% Grade 2, 12% Grade 3, and so on (with the bottom 4% getting Grade 9).
Despite the agitations raised against the Stanine grading system, John Kapi noted that it serves specific functions including selection of schools and placement for candidates.
“It is not entirely true that WAEC has decided to stick to it even though it is unpopular. It is for certification, as well as for selection and for placement, so it has a number of functions it performs and the GES officials think it is the one that I suitable for the BECE that is why they have adapted it,” he added.
