Validity, accountability and fairness of official exams in Lebanon : reflections of grades 9 and 12 public school students

Abstract

My research examines the learners’ attitudes towards the validity, accountability, and fairness of the official examinations and the extent to which they influence the quality of learning in public schools in Lebanon. I chose learners of Grades 9 and 12 Humanities and Life Sciences Sections who were sitting the official examinations during 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 in a public high school in West Bekaa. They were 122 participants and data were collected from the learners through essay writing, open-ended-question survey, Diamond Ranking from Akar (2009), and open discussions. I also compared the attitudes of 14 students who took the Brevet exam in 2015-2016 and are preparing for the Terminale exam in 2018-2019. Findings demonstrated that students have changed attitudes towards the official exams between grades 9 and 12. Students also reflected that teachers use prescriptive pedagogy that instructs students to practice rote learning and memorization to accumulate grades and succeed at the official examinations with a distinction. Learning does not matter; succeeding at the Brevet or Terminale does. Classroom practices and learning approaches reflected threats to validity, accountability and fairness of the official exams. It is suggested that a change in the curriculum should be held alongside a change in the behavior where learning is taken by different players as lifelong instead of mere competition, memorization and accumulation of points.