THE EFFECT OF THE ETHIOPIAN SCHOOL LEAVING CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION ON STUDENT ATTRITION RATE IN WONDO GENET COLLEGE OF FORESTRY

Abstract

: This study attempts to evaluate the pre-college academic
performance of Wondo Genet College of Forestry (WGCF) entrants and the
selection instrument used for admission of students to the College. The main
premise of the study is that high attrition rate and its adverse effects are the result
of students' ill preparedness to follow college education. Primarily, the candidates
of 1992/93 and /993/94 academic years of the College are grouped into
"withdrawals ", "academic dismissals ", "withdrawals plus academic dismissals "
and "survivors" based on their first year first semester academic status. And then,
((N 'l"'Viemic backgrounds of the groups are compared based on their High school
~ ,,11 Ethiopian School Leaving Certificate Examination (ESLCE) GPA and Pre-
,,""\\~examination score (administered right after registration). An effort was also
n\. \bi (a) see the relation between First Year First Semester withdrawals and students sll~iect to academic dismissal of six batches (1988-1993 entrants), (b) get
opinions through the use of a questionnaire on ESLCE administration and (c)
examine the correlation of High school record, E LCE CPA and Pre-college exam
score with Freshman CPA. Theflndings of the study sholl' Ihat both withdrawals
Clnd academic dismissals constituted students who were incompetent for college
educationji-olll the start. And moreover, most of the withdroll'S' decision to give up
the programme untimely is a conscious act to escape ji-OI11 academic dismissal. The
ESLCE (at least) entangled by administration problems isfound velY poor to serve
the purpose vested in it. The pre-college examination (/ = 0.82) has proved to be
the best predictor of First Year First Semester (college ) pelformance. A
combination of high school record and pre-college examination score yields a bit
better prediction validity of the semester CPA (R1 = 0.83) than the pre- college
exam alone.