assessment should evaluate students holistically with the introduction of school based assessment...

8/13/2019 Assessment Should Evaluate Students Holistically With the Introduction of School Based Assessment and a Lesser

1/5

Assessment should evaluate students holistically with the introduction of school based

assessment and a lesser emphasis on central assessment As we all know, an assessment is carried out for various purposes in order to fulfill the

requirements of the ministry of education. More importantly, the assessment should evaluate the

students holistically but most of the assessments seem to be ignoring the word holistic. They

just give importance to the central assessment. If a holistic assessment is given a substance,

every student would have the capabilities to contribute to the betterment of our country.

These days, most of the teachers are merely focusing on the central assessment which

means written tests, project work or oral tests (for languages) that assess subject learning. LP

develops the test questions and marking schemes. The tests are, however, administered and

marked by school teachers. Our country is marching towards vision 2020.The journey would

surely demand a great paradigm shift in our education system. Therefore the teachers should

integrate the holistic assessment as an important element in the process of testing the students

based their understanding.

I have browsed many books written for school students. Glancing through the questions

structured for comprehension tests, I learned that they seldom infuse the higher order thinking

questions which force the students to think out of the box. Most of the questions are easy and the

answers can be found in the text effortlessly. Thus, our students are pampered and there is no

path for them to think independently. Higher order thinking skills are essential for the students to

create something which can mirror their creativity.

An effective assessment does open the door for the students to stretch their potential in

order to meet the necessary requirements of our education system. If we ponder about our

education system, we would be surprised that some educated people who have completed their

degree program are not pretty good in writing a letter or speaking a particular language without

grammatical errors. Many graduates are unable get their aspired jobs because they havent

achieved their communicative competence. A candidate who is unable to respond to questions

presumably during an interview would fail to grab his job. He or she will suffer for their inability

to function well in every aspect of the society.


2/5


3/5

structured through a well-planned curriculum which is like a route map to pave the way towards

the proposed vision in order to become a developed country in future.

As a concerned educator, I would say that education alone would not be enough to make

a holistic person. Experience would teach a person to rely on his or her capabilities to invent a

new thing or to do something which shows their development. In our country, we are spoon-

feeding our students to do their given tasks. Thus we are spoiling the brighter future of our

children. Many students in our country seem to be very keen to get an answer rather than finding

their way to get the answer. I have heard that those who are doing their degree or master program

in overseas discover their assigned tasks for each program really challenging and force them to

think widely. When a student is exposed to such tasks, his or her thinking style would take a new

route to reach their destination.

The exam-oriented system in our country is being followed crazily without taking into

account the result in future undertakings. I have taught at a secondary which is just few

kilometers from my living place. It was a challenging experience that I havent had in my life

before. Entering the classroom for the first time, I was taken a back realizing the level of the

students in their subjects. Although they were advanced students, they had difficulties to respond

to my questions when I made slight changes to certain comprehension questions. They were

waiting for my answers without trying to find for the answers. They didnt want to think

creatively. If a question challenges them they begin to skip such questions. It is proving that our

students are pampered and we should do something to make their life meaningful. If we fail to do

so, our children will become like a machine. A machine will never think for itself and people

have to control them. Likewise our students wont think independently.

Parents send their children to the tuition centres after coming back from school. In the

tuition centers, they are applying the exam-oriented system. The students would get bored to

learn the same subjects that they have learned at school. As our education minister had saidbefore ,we can reduce the number of subjects in public examinations. By doing so, we can

ensure their active participation in other activities at school. They would have the chance to

realize that life is beautiful and they should live a life which is useful to others. The students

should not revolve around the public examinations instead they can spend their precious time to

learn some skills which can help them to lead their life as they wish.


4/5

Our governments intention to produce individuals, who are intellectually, spiritually,

emotionally and physically balanced and harmonic, based on a firm belief in and devotion to

God is indeed a wise one. Every school should put their full effort to give importance to assess

their children holistically during each assessment in school. In order to make sure the

assessments in each school take place appropriately, the government should aware of the

workload of the teachers and reduce them to enable the teachers to evaluate their children easily.

Thus the teachers would show keen interest to perform their duties correctly.

Many teachers have no time to focus on skills and abilities of the students because they

have to complete the syllabus within the given period of time. Therefore they need to focus on

the content and achievement of the students. The introduction of the school based assessment has

become a big problem for the school teachers. They are forced to complete the information about

their students through online. The teachers experience difficulties to do so because of the

problems caused by internet connection which is very slow and it makes them unable to

complete their work at the right time. In this case, the government should take initiatives to make

their work easy by introducing the off-line system for all the subjects. This will help the teacher

to key-in the level of the students manually anytime and anywhere without depending on the

internet.

The introduction of other school based assessments should be made easy for the teachers

to cope with it. Furthermore, teachers who are carrying out KSSR, LINUS, and VLE frog would

surely hate their work life if the process of assessing the students challenges them each and every

time. Although the suggestion to assess the students holistically is acknowledgeable, the

drawbacks as a result of the introduction of new assessments should be taken into account. VLE

frog is one of the programs introduced by the government to enable the students to use the

internet for learning purpose. Some of the schools are not still equipped with the essential

facilities. At the same time, the students also dont have internet at home. How could the

children use internet if they dont have internet access at home? Besides that, they cant use VLE

frog to respond to their teachers questions appropriately. Considering the technological

glitches and other unpredictable problems, the government should take appropriate measures to

make the programs a success.


5/5

Changing trends in educational assessment is definitely a superb idea for the future of our

country but the steps being made to reach the estimated destination must consider other

circumstances. The government should not urge the teacher to chase after the content at school.

They must make compulsory that students are equipped with necessary skills and abilities for

their competitive world. When a teacher focuses on the achievement of a student, the student

might underestimate himself and will not have chances to realize his innate propensity. The

particular student who is only able to produce a mediocre result will feel shy to expose himself to

the challenging world. I have seen many people who are perfect in their studies but they could

perform presumably in their work life. They dont have enough skills to challenge with the other

candidates.

In the process of carrying out the holistic evaluation discouraging the central

assessments, group-work activities play an integral role in producing a holistic person. During

the assessment the students would have chances to communicate their ideas independently. This

type of activity will improve their communicative competence profusely. A teacher can assess

their students indirectly instead of testing them directy. Students affective filter is high during

the examination but they would be able to perform properly when their affective filter is very

low. Therefore it is recommended that central assessment is not worth it.

assessment should evaluate students holistically with the introduction of school based assessment...

Documents