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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.