The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) sets how basic schools in Ghana report learners’ progress. Under its National Pre-Tertiary Learning Assessment Framework, a learner’s mark in each subject combines class work and the end-of-term exam, and is reported as a proficiency level instead of a raw score alone.
Step 1: the class score (usually 30%)
Class work is the tasks set during the term: group work, class tests, projects. Add up what the learner scored and divide by what was possible, then scale it to the class-score weight.
Example: four tasks, each out of 20, total possible 80. The learner scores 15, 14, 17 and 16 = 62 out of 80. Class score = 62 ÷ 80 × 30 = 23.3.
Step 2: the exam score (usually 70%)
The exam is marked out of its own total, then scaled. The learner scores 74 out of 100. Exam score = 74 ÷ 100 × 70 = 51.8.
Step 3: the total
Total = class score + exam score = 23.3 + 51.8 = 75.1 out of 100.
Step 4: the proficiency level
For upper and lower primary (Basic 1 to 6):
| Total | Level |
|---|---|
| 80 and above | HP · Highly Proficient |
| 66 to 79 | P · Proficient |
| 50 to 65 | AP · Approaching Proficiency |
| Below 50 | D · Developing |
For JHS (Basic 7 and above):
| Total | Level |
|---|---|
| 80 and above | HP · Highly Proficient |
| 68 to 79 | P · Proficient |
| 54 to 67 | AP · Approaching Proficiency |
| 40 to 53 | D · Developing |
| Below 40 | E · Emerging |
Our learner’s 75.1 is P (Proficient) in primary and also P in JHS.
Many private schools still print the older letter grades (A1 to F9) alongside or instead. Whichever you use, use it the same way for every class.
Step 5: positions
Learners with the same total share a position, and the next position is skipped: 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 4th. Positions in a subject use that subject’s total; the overall position uses each learner’s average across subjects.
Common mistakes
- Adding raw task marks to the exam mark without scaling them first.
- Forgetting a task for some learners, which lowers their class score unfairly. Decide whether a missed task counts as zero or is left out.
- Rounding too early. Round only the final total.
How Fusadems does it
Teachers enter each task’s marks and the exam mark; Fusadems works out class score, exam score, total, NaCCA level and positions as the marks go in, and the head prints every report card in the class at once and releases results to parents when ready. The 30/70 split and the grading scale are the school’s settings.
Questions schools ask
How is the NaCCA class score and exam score calculated?
Class work is scaled to the class-score weight (usually 30%) and the exam to the exam weight (usually 70%); the two are added for a total out of 100.
What do HP, P, AP, D and E mean on a report card?
They are NaCCA proficiency levels: Highly Proficient, Proficient, Approaching Proficiency, Developing and Emerging.
What score is HP in NaCCA grading?
80 and above is HP (Highly Proficient) for both primary and JHS.