| [00:00.10] |
From VOA Learning English, |
| [00:02.52] |
this is the Education Report. |
| [00:05.85] |
Entrance examinations have been causing problems and confusion |
| [00:11.37] |
at the University of Liberia in Monrovia. |
| [00:15.85] |
The exams help to decide whom the University |
| [00:20.18] |
will accept as a student. |
| [00:22.83] |
The problems begin after an education specialist James Dorbor-Jallah |
| [00:29.90] |
was named to direct and administer the testing. |
| [00:34.42] |
Recently, about 25,000 high school students took the test but failed. |
| [00:42.49] |
Mr Dorbor-Jallah says, he and his team want to show |
| [00:48.16] |
that a fair, honest examination can be helped. |
| [00:52.84] |
He says some Liberian think they cannot enter the university |
| [00:57.47] |
unless they make a financial gift in return. |
| [01:01.65] |
He said the University has been trying to decide |
| [01:06.15] |
how to oversee the process, |
| [01:08.75] |
so people's abilities would be measured |
| [01:12.04] |
on the basis of their performances on the examination. |
| [01:16.22] |
Last year, the University of Liberia |
| [01:19.14] |
accepted about 7,000 new students after they took a similar exam. |
| [01:25.83] |
But that test was judged differently. |
| [01:29.66] |
Mr Dorbor-Jallah says the university sought his help |
| [01:34.78] |
because it had problems in the past with entrance exams. |
| [01:39.76] |
The country's Minister of Education says she does not think |
| [01:44.73] |
that all 25,000 high school students failed the test. |
| [01:49.47] |
Some of the students have held protests at the university. |
| [01:54.35] |
They say they were cheated of the more than 20 dollars required |
| [01:59.73] |
to register for the test. |
| [02:03.09] |
It appeared that the university would have no first year students |
| [02:08.86] |
until Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf mad with university officials. |
| [02:16.17] |
The officials then said they would lower admission test requirements |
| [02:21.75] |
and accept at least 1,600 people. |
| [02:26.58] |
President Sirleaf said the school could not be expected |
| [02:31.20] |
to reform it's admission policies so soon |
| [02:35.04] |
after the end of Liberia's second civil war. |
| [02:39.72] |
The fighting ended 10 years ago. |
| [02:43.66] |
He blamed conditions caused by the fighting for what he has called |
| [02:49.08] |
"the mess" in the country's educational system. |
| [02:53.71] |
Mr Dorbor-Jallah says he promised the university |
| [02:57.54] |
that his team would document the testing process |
| [03:01.03] |
so anyone could get the same results as his team. |
| [03:06.26] |
Mr Dorbor-Jallah says that like earlier tests, |
| [03:10.09] |
the 2013 entrance exam was based on the Ministry of Education curriculum. |
| [03:16.96] |
But he also says that the most recent test results were based on raw scores. |
| [03:25.24] |
A raw score does not provide any grading assistance |
| [03:29.75] |
like a curve based on the performances of a group of students. |
| [03:35.15] |
He said 308 of the more than 25,000 students |
| [03:39.93] |
did meet 50 percent success in math. |
| [03:43.36] |
But he said no student was able to gain 70 percent in English. |
| [03:49.80] |
And that's the Education Report from VOA Learning English. |
