Piloting school-based continuous assessment at middle basic level: the Zambian approach - Gabriel Mweemba and Michael Chilala

Over the years, national school examinations in Zambia have been used for the certification and selection of candidates at primary, junior secondary and senior secondary school levels. School-based continuous assessment marks have been neither considered nor used for certification and selection except in some practical subjects. In 1977, educational reforms provided for the use of continuous assessment, but this provision has not generally been applied. The Ministry of Education policy document, Educating our future (1996), stipulates that the Ministry of Education will develop procedures that will enable teachers to standardize their assessment methods and tasks for use as an integral part of the teaching and learning process. The Ministry of Education's Strategic Plan 2003-2007 re-emphasizes the need for integrating school-based continuous assessment results with the final examination results for the purpose of the certification and selection. This paper provides a theoretical framework driving the formalization of the use of continuous assessment in our schools and discusses the measures Zambia is taking to standardize the school-based continuous assessment procedures, as well as the adopted approaches towards piloting the school-based continuous assessment programme. Finally, the paper discusses the challenges and the way forward for the programme.
From: Southern African Review of Education, Vol. 13 no. 1 (2007)