Performance of Freshman and Preparatory Origin Students on a Reading Comprehension Test: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Following the country’s higher education reform, institutions of higher learning in the country, during the 2003/2004 academic year, had to admit two groups of students – the freshman origin and the preparatory origin – to departments in their faculties. This study which was carried out during the said academic year involved two freshman and two preparatory sections/classes, one each from the Departments of Foreign Languages and Literature and, Ethiopian Languages and Literature, Institute of Language Studies, Addis Ababa University.

The purpose was to investigate if there exist differences in the reading comprehension performance of the groups. Participants were selected on availability basis as these were the only groups newly admitted to the Departments during that academic year. All sat for a reading comprehension test and an independent samples t-test was applied on the scores. Results showed that freshman origin students performed significantly higher than their preparatory counter parts. This might imply that despite the heavy responsibility laid on the shoulders of preparatory schools in the various regions in preparing their students for the demands that higher education would put to them, it seems there is still a lot expected of them to bridge existing gaps. Therefore, that the schools and other relevant bodies work harder to alleviate the problem seems to be in order.