Bachelor of Science Degree in Water Resources and Irrigation Engineering

1.    Introduction

A study of Water Resources and Irrigation Engineering is a field of study that deals with collecting and distributing water where and when it’s needed. The field gives greater emphasis to irrigation Engineering and drainage systems, river training and flood protection works, construction of dams and reservoirs for water supply and irrigation purposes as a whole. Undergraduate studies offer a series of basic engineering and applied courses in the area of water resources, irrigation and water supply engineering (fluid mechanics, hydraulics, hydrology, ground water, water supply and wastewater systems, irrigations and drainage, river hydraulics, sedimentation, river-training works, flood protection etc.). The program also offers Civil-engineering courses, which includes elements of geo-mechanical engineering, structural engineering, construction engineering, materials engineering, transportation engineering, geodesic surveying and geology.

Ensuring quality and relevant education in Higher Education institutions is one of the challenges that remained to be solved. In a pursuit to rise educational outcomes in terms of quality and relevance, many countries currently aim to improve accountability in the school system. Many school systems provide educational outcome information. However, the Exit exam provides outcome information to be comparable across schools on an external standard.

Moreover, several concerns regarding the scheme of exit exam including efforts and costs to maintain the process, opposing arguments, exposing potential weakness in the education system, fear of impeding flexibility within curriculum, quality and reliability of the employee, ownership, exam administration, and management and cheating will be considered.

To address this exit exam, test blueprint of the examination must be well prepared and it must be easily guide to exam question preparation.

A Test Blueprint or the blueprint used for examination contains the strategy of exam by an educational institution. A Test Blueprint can also be defined as the matrix or list which shows the questions count and the variety of the test questions covered in the selected subject content and also perpendicular to the learning objectives and how much weight does each of the question carries according to a specific topic.

A test blueprint is a map of the objectives that are assessed on the test as well as a map of the different levels of learning that each question addresses.

2.    Objective/ Significance of Test Blueprint Preparation

Test blueprint preparation is generally opted to assist the preparation of a test that is representative, broadly sampled, and consisting of complete knowledge domain expected of the Ethiopian higher education students on completion of their study program. The specific objectives of test blueprint are to:

• Facilitate the construction of a representative and balanced test items for the selected courses in accordance with the competencies identified.
• Guide test developers or writers to write or set appropriate test items.

3.    Expected profile of the Graduates

This program is aimed at training manpower required for the realization of the use of country’s vast water resources potential. Well-qualified Water Resources and Irrigation Engineers will be produced through this program who can actively be engaged in the planning, design, development and management of water resources projects. Specifically, the trainees will be equipped with the knowledge that enables them to execute the following tasks:

• Undertake project identification; pre-feasibility and feasibility studies of water resources projects;
• Plan water resources projects; and design irrigation, drainage structures and other related to environmental protection works;
• Prepare complete contract documents for water resources projects like, Irrigation projects, drainage facilities, water supply projects, and projects which are related with environmental protection works;
• Plan, design, manage and supervise the construction of Irrigation, drainage structures and related civil engineering works;
• Plan, design, manage, monitor and evaluate the operation and maintenance of irrigation and drainage systems;
• Remodeling and rehabilitation of existing water supply, hydraulic and hydropower systems.

4.    General objective

The General objective of this national exit examination is to produce competent trained man power who have appropriate performance on the field of study by developing knowledge, skill and attitude.

5.    Specific objectives

The national public administration exit exam shall have the following objectives

• To produce skilled and competent manpower to national and international market
• Assessing students’ educational achievement in major areas of Water Resources and Irrigation Engineering (WRIE)
•  Ensuring whether the graduation profile of WRIE curriculum have achieved at least common standards of knowledge and practical skills
• Facilitating the efforts of students to revise the core learning outcomes of the courses covered by the exit examination
• Ensuring all graduates from HEIs satisfy the requirements of the labor market and employability through the national wide implementation of competency-based exit exam
• Creating competitive spirit among WRIE departments in Ethiopia with the vies to encouraging them to give due attention to the national standards