Undergraduate Exit Exam Gets Underway
ADDIS ABABA – Undergraduate exit exam is underway as the Ministry of Education puts the quality of universities in Ethiopia to the test for the first time.
The ministry introduced the exam this year as per its recent directive that make the exit test for prospective graduates mandatory.
The move was aimed at elevating the quality of graduates being churned out by both public and private universities in the country.
The Ministry today says higher institutions have made enough preparation to administer the exam to their first-degree candidates online.
But it was prospective graduates of health science and related fields that got the exit exam underway on Friday.
The exam in other undergraduate programs will continue as of Monday, officials say.
More than 200,000 prospective university graduates are expected to sit the online test.
A first-degree candidate has to score 50% and higher to graduate this year. Students who do not pass will be given additional opportunities to sit for another round of the exit exam to get their degree.
The education sector has 51 public universities and nearly 350 private higher education institutions, with more than one million students.
The newly introduced exit test is expected to gauge the quality of the tertiary education system. And it comes after a shocking result recorded in a strictly administered University entrance exam last year.
