Innovations in educational assessment in africa: a proposed framework for the Zambian secondary school sector.
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Date
2014
Authors
Msango, Henry J
Luchembe, Musonda
Changala, Moses
Sibeso, Lisulo
Moonga, Anolt L.H.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ResearchGate
Abstract
Assessment is an essential part of any educational enterprise. Its policies and practices are critical to any educational improvement strategy which is essential to teaching and learning, monitoring, evaluation and improvement of the education system. Education assessment is used to determine learner competencies for certification, progression from one level to another and suitability for employment. Assessment must, therefore, be aligned to national goals in order to have a beneficial influence on the economic and social conditions of people. The credibility of an education system is determined by the quality of its education assessment.Countries endeavour to employ educational assessment systems that are congruent with national objectives and goals. In Africa, many countries have had curriculum changes and innovations, some of which have not been accompanied by appropriate educational assessment systems resulting into unacceptable educational outputs.This paper examined the main features of educational assessment in the Zambian secondary education sector since independence. Some of the findings were that the format of assessing learners in this sector had not changed over the years, the educational assessment was conducted internally by the schools and externally by the Examinations Council of Zambia, and that the public paid more attention to the assessment done by the external examinations. The
proposed innovations included government and other stakeholders to adequately finance the secondary school sector in order to acquire the necessary teaching and learning resources, strengthen continuous assessment and decentralize the operations of the Examinations Council of Zambia.
Description
Article
Keywords
Education , Education Assessment , Innovation and Curriculum