[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.