Bodies pledge commitment to credible examinations
Examining and assessment bodies in Africa have pledged to adopt and adapt the best and leading practices to enhance the validity and reliability of credible examinations conducted in countries on the continent.
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At the end of the 33rd Conference of the Association for Educational Assessment in Africa (AEAA) held in Accra, the bodies said they accepted the challenge of fashioning ways of confronting the issue of quality assurance together.
These were part of a communiqué issued at the end of a five-day conference on the theme: “Quality Assurance in educational assessment in an era of rapid change.”
The communiqué, jointly signed by the president and Executive Secretary of AEAA, Mr Michael M. Chilala, and Dr Edmund Z. Mazibuke, respectively, said in line with that, the various bodies had agreed to find ways of assessing higher-order cognitive ability that would enable students to apply knowledge acquired to real life situations.
Reliable tools for assessing
“We are also determined to research into finding reliable tools for assessing the nascent traits of soft skills. We acknowledge the potential of ICT in enhancing the assessment of students’ achievements and the damage malpractice causes to the credibility of our assessments,” it said.
To that end, the communiqué said the assessment bodies had recognised the need to develop strategies to combat the ever-increasing menace of examination malpractice, not losing sight of the possibility of using computer-based tests.
“We know the value of accurate examination data as it constitutes vital information for the refinement of education for the human resource development in our countries, and would strive to achieve it,” the communiqué added.
Technical paper
In a technical paper submitted at the end of the conference, a lecturer at the Department of Science and Mathematics of the University of Cape Coast, Professor Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, advocated a critical look at the traditional mode of assessment.
He said learning how to think critically and creatively, reason logically, interpret rationally and assessing, as well as creating knowledge, was the way to go in the 21st century. He added: “This calls for a critical and urgent look at how educational assessment is done.”
Professor Ampiah contended that if students were to develop analytical or ‘thinking’ skills, then they should be able to deal with complex problems in a logical manner and be able to communicate and present solutions in various ways.