Link Between The Institute Of Chartered Accountants (Ghana) Syllabus And Examination Content: A Case Of Compliance

Syllabus is an essential course-planning tool that contains information about a course, needed to help students succeed in an examination. However, the ability of a syllabus to achieve its objective depends largely on the extent of its compliance with examination content. The study examined the ICAG’s Syllabus and examination content nexus to ascertain the extent of compliance. Data on past examination questions and pass rates from May 2015 to May 2019, as well as the revised May 2015 syllabus, were obtained from the Institute for the study. The Bloom’s Taxonomy provided the theoretical underpinnings for the study. Content analysis, descriptive analysis and panel regression were employed to analyse the data collected. The study found an overall average compliance rate of 67 percent, with level three obtaining the highest compliance rate of 73.7 percent. The spread of questions over topics was 74.8 percent, with some variations in the extent of knowledge assessed for the three levels, as measured by Blooms taxonomy. The study also found overall compliance level and spread of questions over topics to positively affect students’ pass rates over time, albeit not significant. The findings suggest the need to improve the compliance level of the ICAG syllabus to have a better link with its examination content through appropriate measures. ICAG should educate examiners to adhere to the content of its syllabus in setting examination questions. The examination questions should fairly cover topics in the syllabus, with the appropriate assigned marks in the syllabus to enhance students’ pass rate. With the wide variations in mark allocation on question papers, the Institute must design a system to ensure examiners do not allot marks on question papers differently from those in the syllabus. Above all, spread of examination questions over topics in the syllabus should be well aligned to achieve stated learning outcomes, using appropriate Blooms taxonomy. There is no doubt that improving the compliance level between the ICAG syllabus and examination content will enhance the examination pass rates, enrolment rates and the financial position of the Institute.