School Leaving Certificate Research Articles

Performance of Francophone Secondary School Leavers in English Structure and Written Expression

This study looks into the performance in English of Francophone learners in general, and into their mastery of structure and written expression in particular. The informants were 430 pupils who had just obtained the Baccalaureat , the certificate required for admission into tertiary education, and who came from different schools in ten regions of the country. The data were a collection of answers to a TOEFL-like test designed to check these pupils’ knowledge of English structure. The analysis revealed that these pupils did not attain college level English, and the English test they took at the Baccalaureat did not seem to effectively assess knowledge of structure. To ensure that Francophones do perform well in English, there is a need to re-orient the English language syllabus and to use the time allocated to the English subject (3 hours a week for seven years) to teach them the substance of English-medium primary education content. When this is done, they would be able to take the First School Leaving Certificate examination before they complete French-medium secondary education.

Werkschulen in Bremen – ein präventiver Ansatz zur Integration lernbenachteiligter Jugendlicher

The „Werkschule“, a pre-vocational school-based education for career orientation, has been developed in the pilot project “Development and implementation of a concept for promoting disadvantaged youths by practice-oriented learning”. The project was funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) between 2009 and 2012. A “Werkschule”, which lasts three years from the ninth to the eleventh class level, offer students the opportunity to develop their capability for vocational education and training and to receive a secondary modern school-leaving certificate. Since 2012 the “Werkschule” is a regular type of public school in the state of Bremen. This article explains the concept and presents the results of the final survey of the pilot project. 65 staff members and 194 (out of 385) students of eight “Werkschulen” were interviewed in 2012. The findings of the survey as well as the 85 % graduation quota of the first cohort point out the success of this concept. Students whose graduation was rather unlikely a few years ago regained interest in school and finally got their degree. Others, who had social problems at former schools or had to leave their former school due to several problems strengthened their social competencies and identified themselves with the concept and the institution. It is hoped that a similar preventive approach for the vocational education and training will be found. Prevention is the purpose of preventing potential problems ahead. This principle applies equally to the career guidance and orientation in secondary education as for the subsequent vocational education and training.

Effects of double qualifications on various dimensions of job satisfaction

Using a sample of graduates from a unique employee survey, this paper analyses the indi vidual effects of double qualifications, i.e. of first taking up vocational training after obtain ing the German upper secondary school-leaving certificate (Abitur) instead of going straight on to university. Our estimations take into account the potential endogeneity of having a double qualification. We find that the effects of double qualifications on wages and on eleven single dimensions of job satisfaction are either significantly positive or insignificant, but never significantly negative. Our results suggest that individual risk considerations are of minor importance in the context of double qualifications; however, such complex educa tional paths provide valuable labour market information for individuals.

Public and private school performance in Nepal: an analysis using the SLC examination

Using data from the survey of the Ministry of Education, Nepal-2005 for School Leaving Certificate Exam, this paper analyzes public and private school performance in Nepal. The ordinary least square estimates suggest that private school students perform better than public school students. However, the problem of self-selection bias arises, as private school students can fundamentally differ from public school students. This study adopts the propensity score matching technique to account for this problem. The results, even after using the propensity score matching technique, suggest a positive private school effect for the data used in this study.

Does private school competition improve public school performance? The case of Nepal

Using data from the survey of the Ministry of Education, Nepal-2005 for school leaving certificate (SLC) exam, this paper attempts to estimate the impact of private school competition on public school performance for the case of Nepal. The study uses the number of private schools in the neighborhood as a measure of competition. The identification problem is that private school enrollment is likely to be correlated with public school performance. To address this, the study uses the existence of a motorable road within an hour's walking distance from the sample school as an instrument for number of private schools in the neighborhood. The OLS results show no significant relationship. In contrast, the IV method indicates a positive and significant impact of private school competition on public school performance, which holds true for the continuous and binary measure of private school competition.

Obituary jean rives

It is Easter Eve, and Jean Bernard Flament is on the phone. He is probably phoning to exchange Easter greetings as always throughout our long friendship. But this time, it is not to wish me a Happy Easter. ‘‘The Patron is dead’’, said Jean Bernard, and a shiver ran right through me. The Patron, Jean Rives, was my mentor in surgery, but above all in life. He was elderly and ailing, but the news still came as a surprise, and at once I felt more fragile, more alone. And now I would like to portray him for you as I remember him. Who was J. Rives? First of all, he was the Patron, a title I have never heard given to anyone else. Everyone called him the Patron; everyone recognised his superiority, charisma, experience, and culture. A man who rationalised every gesture and every sentence, strict with others, but first and foremost, with himself. It is said that on the day he passed his schoolleaving certificate, instead of celebrating with his friends, he went to study for the university entrance examinations. Who was Jean Rives? A man of surgical rationality. He was the first to perform the technique of positioning a mesh in a difficult space to treat inguinal hernia, and his technique, still valid today, was the basis for the laparoscopic technique. His technique, which involves positioning an intraparietal prosthesis, is still the ‘‘gold standard’’ in the treatment of ventral hernia, and we are talking about ideas and techniques dating back 50 years, and which have stood the test of time. Who was J. Rives? A strict, but good man, a lover of art and sailing, with a thirst for life. I worked with him for 1 year, but I have always remained close to him, considering him as a father figure. We went away for travel together twice (he was already retired), and it was seeing him outside the hospital environment that I was able to appreciate his great human, artistic, and cultural qualities. Like all his trainees, upon his retirement, I received a book that I jealously conserved: Un egard sur la Chirurgie. A compendium of teachings that only he could offer his students: culture, knowledge of things, and wisdom shine through every page. The book is divided into several chapters relating to his life. It is one of the few books I take down from the shelf every now and then to reread a chapter or a part, and I appreciate it more and more each time. In Jean Rives, we trainees have lost the Patron, our point of reference, one who could always give you advice. Surgeons have lost a brilliant man who made the history of surgery. His greatest teaching? He was retired and living in Paris. He was 68 years old and had not set foot in an operating theatre, nor frequented a conference room since the day of his retirement. It was one of the last times I met him personally. We met at Fouquet’s in the Champs Elysees as two friends. I gave him yet another Marinella tie and talked about humdrum matters. In response to my repeated attempts to invite him to Naples for some Congress or other, he adopted that stern expression that he wore when he had something important to say and said: ‘‘My dear Franceso, I’m almost 68 years old, and even though I’m in good health, and I could still work, but according to the WHO, statistically speaking, in 5 years’ time, I’ll be a dead man. Why not spend these last 5 years finally doing some travelling, seeing an exhibition, or admiring a view or a beautiful woman, instead of locking myself away in a conference room to exchange false pleasantries with colleagues?’’ Rationality until the end. Thank you, Patron, for all you gave us. F. Corcione (&) Turin, Italy e-mail: francesco.corcione@ospedalideicolli.it

Normes diagnostiques de la batterie de tests neuropsychologiques RAPID pour les sujets âgés de 60 à 89 ans présentant une maladie d’Alzheimer

Introduction The aim of this study was to propose diagnostic norms for the rapid neuropsychological battery, in the detection of cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease. Population and methods Three hundred and fifty-two control subjects (mean MMSE : 27.3 ± 2.5) and 676 patients with Alzheimer's disease (mean MMSE : 22.9 ± 2.6) at a mild stage (CDR = 1) were selected according to age (60–69, 70–79 and 80–89 years) and educational level (French primary Education Certificate or lower versus Certificate of Professional Aptitude or the School Leaving Certificate versus the Baccalaureate or higher). Age and education-adjusted cut-off scores were calculated using Receiver Operating Characteristic curves so as to determine the discriminative ability (sensitivity, specificity) of each test from the RAPID neuropsychological battery. Cut-off scores with a specificity set at least at 90% were also proposed. Results The Free and Cued Recall Test exhibited good sensitivity (from 87% to 100% for free recall and from 85% to 98% for total recall) and specificity (from 85% to 96% for free recall and from 86% to 100% for total recall). For the other tests, sensitivities and specificities were lower. Conclusion The use of these two types of cut-off scores should help the clinician in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease by limiting the risk of false positives and false negatives. The choice of the cut-off scores will depend on the patient's individual clinical context.

Investing in mother's education for better maternal and child health outcomes

This letter to the editor provides Nepalese data according to women with school leaving certificate (SLC) and above education and those women with no education on several indicators. It includes information on: the rate of births assisted by a skilled birth attendant immunization coverage of children maternal and child nutritional status fertility rate and mortality under 5 years of age. It also touches on the differences between rural Nepalese women and their urban counterparts in terms of health education and economic status.

Abitur and What Next? Reasons for Gaining Double Qualifications in Germany

Der Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit den Gründen nach dem Abitur zunächst eine duale Ausbildung aufzunehmen und dann ein Studium anzuschließen, anstatt direkt ein Studium zu beginnen. Die Studie erfolgt mit den Daten der BiBB /BAUA-Erwerbstätigenbefragung 2006, die nicht nur den Vorteil einer komplexen Abfrage von Bildungswegen hat, sondern auch die Abiturnote der befragten Abiturienten enthält. Unser zentrales Ergebnis ist der positive und hochsignifikante Einfluss der Abiturnote auf die Wahrscheinlichkeit einer Doppelqualifikation. Damit wird die Hypothese von Büchel / Helberger (1995) bestätigt, dass Abiturienten sich vor ihrem Studium für die Aufnahme einer betrieblichen Berufsausbildung entscheiden, um sich damit gegen das Risiko eines Scheiterns während des Studiums abzusichern. Daneben finden sich Hinweise darauf, dass sich die individuellen Bildungsentscheidungen auch an den Arbeitsmarktchancen nach der Ausbildung orientieren und dass Doppelqualifikationen vor allem in den Bereichen gewählt werden, in denen es "verwandte„ Berufe auf der Ebene der dualen Ausbildung gibt. Weiterhin haben wir keine signifikanten Ergebnisse für die Teilstichproben der westdeutschen Abiturienten und Fachabiturienten ermittelt.

Analysis Of Academic Qualification Of Extension Field Staff And Their Training Needs

The study analyzed academic qualifications of field extension staff in Abia and Akwa-Ibom States of Nigeria. The sample comprised of all the 647 ZEOs, SMSs, BESs and EAs on the roll of the two ADPs at the time of data collection. Analysis of data revealed that: (1) high percentage of staff positions have been filled in the extension services in Abia (80.1%) and Akwa-Ibom (85.4%) States. (2) About 14.4% of staff does not have the minimum entry qualification of OND even as their highest academic qualification is the First School Leaving Certificate or West African School Certificate. Staff with OND are 17.3%. Only 12.2% holds Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) while 20.7% and 32.6% holds HND and B.Sc respectively. The remaining 2.8% holds PGD, M.Sc or Ph.D. It was argued that the OND minimum requirement for employment of EAs and HND for BESs and SMSs are inadequate because these staff is like teachers who must not only be masters of what to teach, but also of how to teach it. The curriculum for OND, HND, BSc, MSc and PhD in Agriculture does not prepare graduates for teaching. If the Federal Ministry of Education has insisted that possession of at least, a certificate in education should be a condition for recruitment of new and retention of old teaching staff, much more would EAs, BESs, and SMSs require adequate training and skills in methodology for teaching. Teaching, informing and advising farmers, who are largely illiterates requires greater skill in the art of teaching. It was recommended that the minimum entry qualification for EAs would be NCE in Agricultural Science or in other science subjects. The policy of holding a minimum of NCE or a certificate in education or Adult education by all field staff in the extension system should be put in place for its obvious implications for effective technology transfer.

A tribute to Rolf Neeb (1929–2006) on the 80th anniversary of his birth

The year 2009 marks the 80th anniversary of the birth of the eminent German analytical chemist Rolf Neeb (Fig. 1). Sadly, Rolf Neeb passed away 3 years ago; however, the 80th anniversary of his birth is an appropriate occasion to remember his many scientific achievements, especially his contributions to electroanalytical chemistry. Rolf Neeb was born on January 7, 1929, in Mainz, the only child of the merchant Arthur Neeb and his wife Anna, nee Lerch. In Mainz he went to the Leibnitz-Volksschule from 1935 to 1939, and then until 1945 to the GutenbergOberrealschule. The war forced the Neeb family to leave Mainz and to settle temporarily in the village of Nierstein. However, Rolf Neeb was able to attend the Gymnasium (grammar school) in the nearby town of Oppenheim, and left with his Abitur (German school-leaving certificate) in 1948. In the same year he began to study chemistry at the reopened Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, where his teachers were W. Geilmann, F. Strassmann, T. Wieland, L. Horner, and G.V. Schulz. Neeb was a student with very wide interests, and even started to learn Arabic (personal information from T. Steudel). He finished his studies with a diploma, which was achieved under the guidance of the well-known analytical chemist Wilhelm Geilmann (May 16, 1891 to May 24, 1967) [1, 2]. Geilmann had been taught by Otto Wallach, Gustav Tammann, Richard Zsigmondy [3], and Carl Mannich [4, 5], and Mannich had supervised Geilmann’s PhD work in Hannover. Thus, one can trace Rolf Neeb’s scientific genealogy back in a straight line to the great Johann Wolfgang Dobereiner [6], who was largely self-taught (see Fig. 2). The German writer and poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe frequently consulted Dobereiner on chemical issues, and he strongly supported his work at Jena [7]. Rolf Neeb’s diploma thesis (1954) concerned the separation of zinc from complex matrices. To achieve this he used a stream of hydrogen gas to reductively evaporate zinc metal—together with other reducible metals—and deposit them onto the cold parts of a quartz capillary. From there it was comparatively straightforward to dissolve the zinc in acid, and then determine the concentration using spectrophotometry or polarography [8, 9]. This was an early example of his scientific creativity, since we know that it was Neeb’s idea to develop such a method, not that of his supervisor (personal information from T. Steudel). Neeb stayed in Geilmann’s group and completed his PhD Anal Bioanal Chem (2009) 395:1571–1573 DOI 10.1007/s00216-009-2801-1

Standardization techniques for grade‐inflation problems at higher educational institutions of Ethiopia: the case of Addis Ababa

Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) is a measure that is used to display the achievement of college students in Ethiopia. It also serves as a key yardstick in career and scholarship assessment. In recent time there has been a rapid massification of higher educational institutions (HEIs). Many academics believe that the expansion has increased a tendency for grade inflation in Ethiopia. As an objective comparison of the quality of graduates from different HEIs is not easy, this study has attempted to discern the CGPA differentials across sample HEIs in Ethiopia and to derive a new standardization technique for their comparison. The study identifies different grading patterns, not only across college categories but also along various batches of HEIs. To generate the standardization technique, both CGPA and the ESLCE (Ethiopian School Leaving Certificate Examination) are employed to derive the Normalized Index. The index is used to adjust not only the inflated but also the deflated CGPAs. The quality of the index could be further improved by incorporating additional variables and also by validating the method over a large set of HEIs.

The Growing Importance of Socioeconomic Aspects in Cardiovascular Disease

Objective: Disparities in mortality between socioeconomic groups have widened during the last decades in Europe, and socioeconomic inequalities in health have been marked as one of the most important issues to be tackled by public health policy. Previous studies have shown an inverse relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) defined by education, income, occupation, social status and neighbourhood environment, and the occurrence of cardiovascular risk factors and disease (CVD). In Italy, poor evidence exists about the relative burden of every single component of SES leading to a higher prevalence of CVD. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between SES and CVD in a cohort of patients admitted to our institution over a period of 9 months. Methods: We retrospectively studied 656 patients admitted to our institution over a period of 9 months, performing a correlation between individual SES and the prevalence of CVD. Admissions included day-hospital and ordinary regimens. Occupation was defined by different categories: employed, unemployed, student, housewife, retired/unable, whereas educational level was classified as no qualification, primary school certificate, secondary school certificate, school-leaving certificate, degree or other academic qualifications. A high educational level was defined as school-leaving certificate, degree or other academic certificate, while primary school certificate or no qualification corresponded to a low educational level. Concerning the causes of disease related to admission, we considered all registered diagnoses according to the WHO classification of disease (ICD-9). Results: Educational level and heart disease appeared to be inversely related, showing that people with hypertensive disease and coronary artery disease (CAD) belonged mainly to the low educational group (r = −0.13, p = 0.001). Gender did not alter such findings significantly: the higher the educational level, the lower the prevalence of hypertensive disease and CAD in women (r = −0.17, p = 0.001) and men (r = −0.18, p = 0.001). Occupational status seemed to mainly influence the prevalence of CAD (r = −0.24; p < 0.001). In addition, an association between educational level and the choice of admission regimen has been observed (r = −0.27; p < 0.001). In the examined population, a more frequent rate of the day-hospital regimen was recorded among high-level qualification subjects compared with ordinary admissions (7.1% vs 6.6%, p < 0.001). Conclusions: In this retrospective analysis from an Italian registry, we observed a decrease in the prevalence of CVD with increasing educational status. However, the mechanism underlying this relationship remains uncertain and needs to be addressed in further studies.

The Child—What Sort of Human?

The rights of the child [are] the first rights of citizenship.—Herbert Hoover's “Children's Charter”The assumption that children are not citizens is deeply rooted in our civic traditions.—Bill Bell, “Are Children Citizens?”The rubbish dump is close to where they live, but there is little money to be made there and it involves plenty of risks. The rats, the filth and the smell are all deeply unappealing; the risk of injury and infections from broken glass or jagged metal is high. Selling food is another option, but there are start-up costs…. In comparison with the jobs available, prostitution is well paid…. Without the school-leaving certificates… necessary for any sort of office or shop work …, the children's only other option, besides sorting rubbish, is begging, which is seen as a poor choice as earnings fluctuate greatly.—H. MontgomeryHuman rights doctrine defines its brief inclusively to encompass “all members of the human family” (Universal Declaration, preamble). But the vantage point from which human interactions are viewed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), although it invokes the family metaphor, is partial: all humans “should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood” (art. 1). This disjunction between inclusive membership and partial perspective encapsulates the position of children in human rights doctrine: they are included in the broad scope of protection but peripheral to the framing conception of agency. The particular conception of “human” motivating the doctrine is restrictive in other ways relevant to childhood: article 1 of the UDHR states, “All humans … are endowed with reason and conscience,” which is manifestly not true unless “endowed” is interpreted to indicate a capability rather than an ontological state. But “endowed” suggests a current reality, not a future possibility. As the Brazilian delegation to the UDHR drafting process wryly noted, “[U]nfortunately it is not exactly true that all men are endowed by nature with reason and conscience” (qtd. in Morsink 297). And it is certainly not true that all children are. How, then, do children fit into the human rights project?

English in Francophone Elementary Grades in Cameroon

Since Reunification of French Cameroon and British Cameroons in 1961, the country has adopted French and English as its joint official languages and recommended the promotion of bilingualism in these two foreign languages in official domains. This paper focuses on the primary school level in the francophone sub system of education and examines the various measures that successive governments have taken. The first two measures failed to bear fruit, for various reasons including insufficient teachers and lack of teaching materials. The most recent measure still to be implemented makes the teaching of the second official language a compulsory subject in all primary school classes and a subject in both the First School Leaving Certificate and the Certificat d'Etudes Primaires (CEP), its French equivalent. This decision seems to have been taken hastily, as the problems of staff and materials are still not resolved. The position of the present researcher is that, as the Government is at present better prepared to provide teaching in one or other of the two official languages, it should make some French-medium and some English-medium schools available in as many localities as possible, and give parents the choice of which system they want for their children.

Successful Apprenticeship-to-Work Transitions: On the Long-Term Change in Significance of the German School-Leaving Certificate

The quality of labor-market entry achieved by newly qualified apprentices in West Germany is analyzed from 1948 to 1992. A bivariate probit model, using data from the BIBB/IAB employment survey, is applied to estimate simultaneously the quality of the school-toapprenticeship transition and that of the apprenticeship-to-work transition. This shows that school leavers with lower levels of general education are selected into apprenticeships with less favorable employment prospects in all analyzed time periods. However, when controlling for this selection effect, it is only in the most recent period that lower academic achievers are further penalized for the shortcomings in their general education at the apprenticeship-towork transition. Furthermore, the crowding-out of trainees with lower levels of general education can be observed in both the less demanding and the more challenging occupational fields.

Cambios en las actitudes y conocimientos de los adolescentes sobre la infección por VIH tras la intervención escolar Aulasida, 1996-1997

Schools being the ideal setting for carrying out Health Education activities, the aim of this study was that of pinpointing and quantifying the changes in attitudes and knowledge on the part of teenagers enrolled in school in Algemesí (Valencia) following an educational intervention regarding HIV infection. Eleven schools at which a total of 2,599 teenagers (ages 12-19) were enrolled in eleven different years of study (Secondary Education, Secondary Ed. and School Leaving Certificate, College Preparation Course and Vocational Training) were invited to take part. The Aulasida intervention carried out during the 1996-1997 school year consisted of an informative lecture-panel discussion and student involvement activities in small groups using educational materials. The gauging instrument was a questionnaire. This questionnaire was designed in a before-and-after cross-sectional study. An analysis was made divided into age and educational level strata. The averages were compared with the Student "t" test and the percentages of change with ji square. A total of nine schools accepted taking part. 1575 students answered the "before" test (47.4% males and 52.1% females), the average age being 15.2 (1.96) years old. The average number of correct answers to the "before" test was 13.5 (2.8). The "after" test showed an overall increase of up to 14.7 (3.0) correct answers (p < 0.01). By educational levels, this increase was highly appreciable in the younger age group. The most common sources of information on HIV were: television (80.8%); Aulasida (76.8%), teachers (60.9%), pamphlets (58.4%) and films (53.7%9. Educational interventions are useful tools for increasing knowledge and improving attitudes regarding HIV infection. Secondary schools are the best environment for this purpose, it being necessary to carry out interventions among younger groups, as a greater impact is thus achieved.

The home and school background of young drivers involved in traffic accidents

The following study investigates the home and school background of young drivers in Sweden involved in traffic accidents leading to injury. The research sample consists of all young drivers born in 1972 who had been involved in one or several traffic accidents with injury registered by the police during the period of 1988–1994 (age 16–22). In all, 2,980 male and 1,054 femal drivers were investigated, classified by the transport mode of car, lorry and bus, motorcycle, moped and bicycle. Information about the family composition and the socioeconomic status of the parents of the young drivers was added from the national census of 1990 and 1985, respectively. The young drivers' school marks in their leaving certificate from compulsory school (at age 16) and educational attainment (at age 20) were obtained from national educational registers. The home and school background of the drivers were compared to a nationally representative sample of men and women of the same age cohort. Estimated risk exposure (driving distance) for car drivers and cyclists from a national travel survey were related to the accident data. The home background of the investigaed drivers did not deviate much from the nationally representative sample in the comparison group. The school achievement and school attainment deviated more. The school marks in the school-leaving certificate from compulsory school (at age 16) of all male motor vehicle drivers involved in accidents were below average and men with compulsory education only, and men with a vocational upper secondary education were over-represented among these drivers. Female car drivers involved in accidents also had lower school marks and lower educational attainment than the nationally representative sample of women in the comparison group, but this was less pronounced than for the male car drivers. The over-representation of low-educated men and women among drivers involved in car accidents could not be explained by a higher risk exposure (driving distances). Thus, educational achievement and attainment were found to be powerful variables explaining accident risk.

Indigenous Technological Capability versus Apartheid: a case study

Over the past few years the achievements of Bhekuzulu High School have baffled the South African government. It is a black school in South Africa run by black anti-apartheid activists determined to disprove the notion that blacks are educationally inferior to whites. In this they seem to succeed. The latest national examination statistics indicated that Bhekuzulu outshone the majority of white schools in South Whereas the pass rate for black South Africans annually sitting for the School Leaving Certificate hovers around 50% (compared to about 97% for whites), the pass rate at Bhekuzulu was 100%. But, more importantly, while the average percentage of black candidates who qualify for university entrance is about 13% (compared to 35% for whites), Bhekuzulu last year achieved a record when 97% of its candidates qualified for university entrance. And, according to Bhekuzulu's headmaster, This is just the beginning. We intend to become the top school in South Africa. What makes Bhekuzulu particularly interesting is that its academic successes were accomplished with minimal financial assistance from outsiders and parents. It is an economi

The vocational and social integration of girls without school-leaving certificate – Investigations based on a vocational preparation course in a rural region

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