TITLE:
Establishing a Measure of Educational Attainment: Using the Zambia Neurobehavioural Test Battery
AUTHORS:
Edina Chirwa, Daniel L. Mpolomoka, Moono Muvombo, Rose Chikopela
KEYWORDS:
Neurobehavioural Test Battery, Neuropsychological Test, School, Education
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.11 No.8,
August
14,
2024
ABSTRACT: This study is aimed at establishing a suitable measure of educational attainment in the process of validating the Zambia Neurobehavioural Test Battery. We explore the function of education in three different contexts: reading ability which from literature presented, has proved to be a better measure; literacy as measured by how often people engage in tasks such as reading and writing; and quality of education measured by access to books. The components conducted under methods and results include, neuropsychological tests administered for each cognitive domain, and hierarchical regression analysis for effects of age, education and reading level on neuropsychological tests. Other components under methods included, multiple regression analyses: predictors of neuropsychological test, performance per domain, and partial correlation values: age, reported years of education and reading ability. Under the results, hierarchical regression was used, which is a type of regression model in which the predictors are entered in blocks. Each block represented one step or model. The teacher pupil ratio and other factors that may affect quality of education offered. It is hypothesised that reading ability, literacy and quality of education serve as an appropriate measure of educational attainment than reported years of schooling. This is predominantly because these will take into account the assessment of the knowledge, strategy and skills needed to perform well on traditional neuropsychological tests. In summary, this study advocates for the integration of reading ability in neuropsychological evaluations to enhance the validity and reliability of cognitive assessments in diverse populations. For recommendations, there is a need to adopt reading ability tests, such as the Zambia Achievement Test Reading Recognition subtest, in neuropsychological evaluations to better predict cognitive performance and enhance diagnostic accuracy. Another recommendation was that, stakeholders should validate neuropsychological test batteries tailored to the cultural and educational context of Zambia, tools accurately reflect the cognitive abilities of the population of the country.