Comparative analysis of psychometric properties of mathematics items constructed by Waec and Neco in Nigeria using item response theory approach

Abstract

West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) and National Examination Council (NECO) are the two major examination bodies saddled with the responsibility of awarding Senior Secondary School Certificate in Nigeria. This study examined the comparability of the psychometric properties of the items constructed by the two examination bodies using Item Response Theory (IRT) approach. Three parameters (difficulty, discriminating and distrator Indices) logistic model was adopted for the study. The study employed descriptive research design of the survey type. The population for the study comprised all Senior Secondary School Students who enrolled for 2019 WAEC and NECO examinations in South West, Nigeria. The sample for the study consisted of 1,200 Senior Secondary School Students selected using multistage sampling procedure. The instruments for the study were objective items constructed by the examination bodies. The findings of the study showed that the difficulty and guessing indices of the mathematics items constructed by the two examination bodies are comparable while the discriminating powers not comparable. It is, therefore, recommended that certificates issued by WAEC and NECO could be used for same purposes without any discrimination since the items constructed by the examination bodies are of comparable standard in terms of their qualities.

Item Analysis of the Science and Technology Components of the 2019 Basic Education Certificate Examination Conducted by National Examinations Council

“…This implies that although NECO does not disclose the psychometric properties of the items she uses for the tests she conducts, it does not in any way suggest that the quality of the items used may be of low quality. These findings are consistent with the findings earlier made by [15] who revealed that the items used by NECO are of adequate quality for use in the tests she conducts since their psychometric properties; difficulty, discrimination, distracter indices as well as guessing factors were adequate. Also lending a voice to the adequacy of the NECO's items, [20] and [21] reported that the difficulty parameter of test items constructed by public examining bodies in Nigeria, NECO inclusive, were adequate.…”

“…The findings of [22] in a study designed to assess the items prone to guessing in SSCE economics multiple-choice tests among students in Kwara State, Nigeria, lend a voice to this when it reported that the items used by NECO are of adequate quality for use in the tests she conducts. [15] also supports this finding when they reported that the items used by NECO are of adequate quality for use in the tests she conducts since their psychometric properties; difficulty, discrimination, distracter indices as well as guessing factors were adequate. Guessing has a way of negatively impacting on the credibility of test scores.…”

“…The finding revealed that the distracters of the Basic Science and Technology test items used for the 2019 Basic Education Certificate Examination were effective. This result is not farfetched as researchers like [15], [20] and [21] who previously studied the psychometric properties of test constructed by the examination bodies in Nigeria, had reported that most of the items used by NECO for instance, had distracters that functioned effectively. This has some implications in education.…”

“…IRT predicts test-takers' chances of providing the right response concerning their abilities and characteristics of the items. Reference [15] revealed that ability level is estimated on a scale that can easily be transformed. The scale is such that it ranges from negative infinity through a mid-point of zero to positive infinity.…”

“…It is therefore hardly surprising that researchers who hold the opinion that the quality of items is the cause of the unstable nature of the performance of students in key subjects like BST in BECE, assert dominance in the narrative of students' failure to meet expected success levels in public examinations in the country. This is not farfetched as researchers like [15] have asserted that there is the probability of the existence of items that could be said to possess elements of technical inadequacies in the tests developed and administered by examination bodies like NECO. Similarly, [10] are of the view that sometimes, students' failure in key subjects at BECE is because of the faults inherent in the psychometric properties of the test, not just due to their inabilities.…”