Tackling Assessment-Related Obstacles To Education For All (Efa) And The Realization Of Millennium Development Goals (Mdgs) In African Countries

Abstract

Education for all (EFA) and millennium development goals (MDGs) presuppose an effective assessment procedure which provides every learner equal opportunity to have his/her potentials identified and developed. The quality of assessment process used determines the level to which learners want and like to learn. The determinant of the quality of assessment is the quality of training given to teachers on assessment. But African teachers, especially at the primary school level are known to be very wanting in assessment skills (Nenty, Adedoyin, Odili & Major, 2007). The inability of African teachers to use assessment to create and maintain a welcoming and a conducive environment within which learners want and like to learn is a serious obstacle to the achievement of EFA and MDGs. If there is no efficient use of assessment to ensure effective teaching and learning in African classrooms, if the instruments and the procedures used in assessment introduce bias against any group of examinees; if classroom tests and hence instructions are examination-driven instead of curriculum-driven; if learners' performance is dependent on the particular testing instrument used; if examination malpractices is institutionalized, and if assessment is of learning instead of for learning, then EFA cannot be assured. This paper analyses these problems and suggests some means to overcome these obstacles

Keywords: Assessment for learning; education for all; millennium development goals; item bias, examination malpractice

Global Journal for Educational Research Vol. 6 (1&2) 2007: pp. 29-34