THE PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT

ABSTRACT

This study was designed to carry out a survey of the problems and prospects of continuous assessment (CA) in Junior Secondary School in Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu State. Four research questions were formulated to guide the study. The sample for the study consisted of 80 respondents. A 24 item self- report instrument was used for the study. The data generated, were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. The result shows that 20 out of the 24 items listed in the Questionnaire as the problems and prospects of continuous assessment implementation were agreed upon. Four (4) were not accepted as problems and prospects of continuous assessment. They include; demands on teachers time, anxiety/fear of failure, improving the quality of questions /items. Improving invigilation, promotion of healthy study habit among students, reducing students population per class, students having access to continuous assessment scores, conducive classroom environment were some of the solutions proffered to remedy the ugly situation.

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Assessment can be defined as the process of gathering data and fashioning them into interpretable form for decision making. It involves collecting data with a view of making value judgments about the quality of a person, object, group or event (Ajuonuma, 2006). Assessment plays a significant role in the educational development of a person, and of course, a nation. It is a means of quality control, of determining the level of accountability displayed by Stakeholders in the industry and also of determining the effectiveness of teaching and learning as well as in finding out students’ achievement. It is a vital tool for educational evaluation, thus its importance as a quality assurance tool cannot be overemphasized.

The concept of assessment in the Nigeria context became officially operative since 1985 consequent upon the production of a manual for its implementation as a result of the implementation of the Nigerian National Policy on Educationwhich was introduced in 1977. Continuous assessment was therefore introduced alongside the 6-3-3-4 system of education in Nigeria. Continuous assessment, according to Federal ministry of Education, Science and Technology (FMEST,1985) is defined as a mechanism whereby the final grading of a student in cognitive, affective and psycho-motor domains of behavior takes into account in a systematic way, all his performances during a given period of schooling, such an assessment involves the use of variety of modes of evaluation for the purposes of guiding and improving learning and performance of the student. These modes of evaluation according to Ajuonuma (2007) are considered adequate for assessment of students’ learning because it is comprehensive, cumulative, systematic, guidance and diagnostic oriented.

The goal of continuous assessment in the opinion of Awotua-Efebo (1999) include the enhancement of assessment as an indicator of Students’ achievement, the integration of curriculum and the focus of assessment on the potentials of each student rather than on a discriminatory summative evaluation. Continuous assessment uses a variety of techniques for assessing the students because it considers all three domains of learning, namely cognitive, affective and psychomotor.