Editor, RE: “P.6, O’level results out” (The New Times, January 14). Girls’ good performance is an indicator of the strong institutions in Rwanda; the education sector, health sector, gender promotion sector...that have played a big role in creating conducive environment for girls’ education. The well-designed policies, strategies, targets... that are well streamlined have marked a significant change in the overall education of girls and boys. Like they say, when you educate a girl, you educate the nation. An educated girl tends to marry later and have healthier children, the children will be more likely survive; they will be better nourished and better educated. She will be more productive at home and better paid in the workplace, she will be better able to protect herself against HIV/AIDS and have a more active role in social, economic and political decision making. Erisa Kato *********************** Part of any examination system is transparency. I have tried to no avail to get any written information on how REB/Mineduc assigns/determines the marks.Can someone kindly assist? Kigali Girl *********************** They probably normalize the raw marks, meaning grading is determined by overall performance. That is what some examinations do. They offer norm-referenced tests and compare a student’s performance to others who are similar. You can remember norm-referenced by thinking of the word “normal”. If the tests are criterion-referenced, they measure student performance against a fixed set of predetermined criteria or learning standards. In elementary and secondary education, criterion-referenced tests are used to evaluate whether students have learned a specific body of knowledge or acquired a specific skill set. Imboko Ndiranga
