Practices and Challenges of Implementing Continuous Assessment in the First Cycle Primary Schools: Dangur Woreda in Benishangul Gumuz Regional State
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Date
2018-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to assess the practices and challenges hindering effective implementation of continuous assessment in some selected First cycle primary schools in Dangur Woreda ,Metekel zone of Benshangul Gumuz regional State. The study was descriptive survey research. The subjects in this study were 96 students, 4 cluster supervisors, 12 directors, 4 District education office experts and 68 teachers. Data were collected through questionnaire, Interview, focus group discussion, observation check lists and document analysis. Percentages were used as the main method of analysis even though qualitative data were analyzed qualitatively. The results indicated that most of school teachers implement continuous assessment with the given formats but the way of assessing students learning, use of different assessment methods in classrooms and the time of continuous assessment result recording vary from teachers to teachers. Moreover, most of the teachers didn’t include a variety of continuous assessment tools in their plan and did not use in the classroom activities regularly and also they record students’ results at one session i.e., at end of each month and semester. Furthermore, some of school teachers have used continuous assessment to identify students’ learning difficulties and learning interests while others have used it to assign mark to students’ learning achievement. Thus, there is discrepancy between the perceived purpose of continuous assessment and what the teachers have used for. It is also difficult to get well-handled documents and properly kept assessment records or portfolios of the students, and the system of reporting learners’ achievement for their parents’ regularly with appropriate detail is completely weak. Therefore, it is very difficult to say that teachers in the selected first cycle primary schools have adequate and complete understandings about continuous assessments. To sum up, the practice of continuous assessment in the first cycle primary schools are; poor, lacks harmony and consistency. Continuous assessment has not fully practiced because of the following major challenges: low utilization of guidelines, large class size, lack of follow up and evaluation, lack of time, lack of awareness, lack of teaching and learning materials, job burden, teachers commitment and students readiness. To overcome these challenges, generally it is better to recruit additional teachers to reduce workload, making stakeholders aware and committed, fulfilling teaching and learning materials, identifying students based on their academic achievements and providing successive remediation and enrichment activities, providing students’ continuous assessment reports to parents in monthly basis and evaluating together, training teachers and raising their awareness, improving teachers managing of students , mobilizing students and making conducive classrooms.
Keywords: primary education; Challenges; Implementing; Continuous Assessment
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Keywords
primary education, Challenges, Implementing, Continuous Assessment