AN EVALUATION OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY WITH SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT IN POST-PRIMARY SCHOOL
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
CONTEXT OF THE STUDY
The existentialist Nigerian education philosophy seeks to differentiate between British idealism, which destroys a legitimate society, and American pragmatism, which builds a nation on practical men. The Nigerian philosophy provided direction and impetus to the national conference curriculum development sponsored by the Nigeria educational research council in 1969. This conference was a watershed moment in the development of education in Nigeria.
It was a prevalent practice in the vast majority of educational institutions, and evaluating student performance based on a single final exam was untenable because it was fraught with psychological paradoxes, expensive, dangerous, and frustrating.
The school certificate performance of students in this country at the time was abysmal. The results of the school certificate examination between 1974 and 1977 demonstrated this. The pass percentages are as follows:
June 1974-51 percent
June 1975-47.4 percent
June 1976- 43 percent
The system of a final examination administered by an external body, such as the West Africa Examination Council, at the end of the secondary school year is unrealistic. Potentially discouraging and destructive. This does not encourage the cultivation of study habits, as students waste their variable four-year period, awaken from their lethargy in the fifth year, and then face the labor of completing long-delayed tasks as the final examination looms. Fear of failure at the conclusion of five arduous years compelled the leisure to cram relaxation into the crucial final month without work.
This situation breeds high casualty rates among students and teachers, the system breeds unsystematic and irregular application to duty, and it breeds dishonesty since the feeding is to ensure success at all costs and by any means necessary, fat or foul.
Continuous and cumulative assessment and evaluation is the solution. This is evenly distributed throughout the year and prepares for the final assault. This diminishes the central examining bodies’ influence on the final examination.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
In accordance with the national education policy, the policymakers were of the opinion that continuous assessment would comprise approximately 60 percent of all primary and secondary school examinations. In addition, training will be incorporated into the continuous assessment of students in programs of pre-service teacher education in teacher training colleges and in-service training at the national teachers institute, as outlined in “teachers education”-titled handbooks on continuous assessment.
The preceding opinion and assertion regarding continuous assessment are compromised by the following:
i. The current test items in the majority of elementary and secondary schools are cognitively biased against the effective and psychomotor domain.
ii. that the 1978-established task force on continuous assessment appears inactive and ineffective.
iii. Seventy percent of current teachers lack knowledge of what to do and how to do it.
The problem of standard comparability appears elusive; the continuous assessment system was implemented in 1977 and revised in 1981 in response to the new national education policy. A distinguishing feature of the new education policy is its emphasis on continuous assessments.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Does the implementation problem continue to affect the continuous assessment system?
Are the school’s reading materials cognitively biased?
In what way has the prominent contributed to the single final examination?
4. To what extent is teacher training in the manipulation of continuous assessment skills necessary?
Does the standard still exist or is it comparable?
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the implementation of the national policy on education, with a focus on continuous assessment in Edo state’s secondary schools.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY
Since the publication, little research has been conducted in the area.
This research aims to bridge the gap.
Formulators and implementers will benefit from the investigation’s findings, as they will have baseline data for implementing an improved quality formation and implementation strategy.
SCOPE OF THE RESEARCH
This study must be exhaustive because it is impossible to investigate a problem without limiting its scope.
Coverage is limited to three secondary schools in the Ikpoba-Okha local government area of Edo state, namely (a) Niger College, (b) Ugiomon Secondary School, (c) Saint Maria Gorreti secondary school, (d) Oguola secondary school, and (e) itohan girls grammar school.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
Cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains.
ASSESSMENT: to appraise, fix value on work e.g. children responses to question.
A SYSTEM is a group of things or parts operating in a regular relationship.
Ability to determine the worth of materials, statements, novels, poems, or other written works.
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AN EVALUATION OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY WITH SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT IN POST-PRIMARY SCHOOL