Ministry of Education of Oman : examinations marks and their relationships with educational indicators

AL-Hosni, M

Abstract

This study aims to provide a comprehensive view of the national educational system, and then to determine the values of some internationally-used indicators within Oman's schools, and their effects upon student performance in the 12 th grade examinations. From this analysis, the
relationships between each variable and the optimal values for overall improvements in the total examination marks of students in the 12 th grade are derived.
In pursuing this aim, the research conducts the first statistical analysis of ten educational indicators using data gathered by the Omani Ministry of Education. A logistic regression method is adopted to study repetition, drop-out, and promotion rates, using data pertaining to the
school years 2006/2007-2007/2008. The analysis in this respect includes all governmental schools' students in grades 1-12. A linear mixed model is then used to explore data for the school years 2005/2006-2007/2008, relating to class size, school size, student/teacher ratio, teacher/class ratio, student age, student gender, and school gender mix. For these indicators, the analysis includes all the 12th grade students.
The results reveal that girls are more likely to promote to the following grades than are boys, since they have low drop-out and repetition rates. This phenomenon causes the average student age of 12th grade girls to be less than that of boys. Grade 12 emerges as having the highest dropout
rate, and grade 5 has the highest repetition rate.
The distribution of the total marks of the 12 th grade students displays a long left tail, reflecting the fact that many students have low total marks. School size and class size are identified as having a negative effect upon the total examination mark. As the school size increases, so too do classes, but they are not allowed to become too large.
The student age has the greatest significant effect on student performance among all the variables, student gender coming second in this ranking. Students who are young for their academic year are performing better than those who are older for the year, and girls perform better than boys.
The research concludes that the basic education system in the Sultanate of Oman is in good health but that room for development and improvement does exist.

Citation

AL-Hosni, M. Ministry of Education of Oman : examinations marks and their relationships with educational indicators. (Thesis). University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Oct 3, 2012
• Award Date: Jan 1, 2011