The Education Ministry says it will this month implement stricter guidelines for the management of school-based assessments (SBAs) required by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC).
SBAs are projects or assignments that students are required to produce for individual subjects and contribute to their final grades in the CXC examinations.
The ministry says the new SBA management guidelines are in response to allegations of malpractice by some students and school personnel.
The ministry says it is seeking to standardise and improve accountability in the system of SBA production, with the ultimate goal of eliminating malpractice.
The ministry says the initiatives are also intended to ensure that the work produced reflect the students’ efforts and, importantly, contribute to the development of life-long skills including independent academic research.
In administering their SBA systems, schools are now required to comply with a rigorous set of standards and expectations in six key areas: internal quality assurance, accountability, communication, monitoring, teacher support, and school readiness.
The ministry says education officers will continuously monitor schools to ensure compliance with these standards.
Additionally, a team of assessors from the Ministry of Education will evaluate schools, as required during the active SBA period each year, to determine how well their administrative systems comply with the required standards.
The ministry says non-compliance may result in students’ overall performance being negatively impacted, since SBAs represent between 20 and 70 per cent of student's final examination grades in some CXC subjects.
No comments:
Post a Comment