A Review on Implementation Challenges and Measures of Exit Exam to Enhance and Assure the Quality of Engineering Education at Ethiopia HEIs

Abstract

Education is the most primary sector in the world, making a significant contribution to national and international development. Different countries have their own national education policies, as well as international policies. As part of the globe, Ethiopia has its own curriculum for various programs aimed at attaining quality education by increasing the competency of learners. This review paper primarily examines the pre-and post-implementation challenges and measures of Exit Exam, which are intended to be implemented at Ethiopian higher education public and privet institution under-graduate programs to improve and ensure the quality of education, and then to increase employment and competency rates. For this review purpose different researches, curriculum documents, education policies, guidelines from institutional, national and international perspectives are reviewed. In Ethiopia, Various exit exams are given for students, such as the ministry exam for grade eight, the matric exam for grade ten, an Entrance exam for grade twelve, and now the exit exam is planned to be given for undergraduate university students at their final year to measure the overall competence of learners and their institute. This review focuses on exit exam significances and challenges in terms of implementation to measure the attitude, knowledge and skill of graduates in terms of engineering competency such as field work skills, experimental skills, programing skills, analytical skills as the exit exam is multiple choice types. For solving those gaps, a critical recommendation of pre and post implementation strategies are indicated for education policy makers and curriculum experts for preparing guideline for exit exam to enhance and assure engineering graduates competences. From this assessment based review, literatures strongly agree the presences and importance of exit exam for university graduates, but they indicate also the pre and post implementation gaps of this exam, in which this review paper try to address this gaps.