Politics of public examinations in Africa
OUTPUT TYPE: Conference or seminar papers
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2004
TITLE AUTHOR(S): M.Kivilu
KEYWORDS: AFRICA, EDUCATION, EVALUATION, EXAMINATIONS
Intranet: HSRC Library: shelf number 3383
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/7202
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/7202
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2004
TITLE AUTHOR(S): M.Kivilu
KEYWORDS: AFRICA, EDUCATION, EVALUATION, EXAMINATIONS
Intranet: HSRC Library: shelf number 3383
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/7202
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/7202
If you would like to obtain a copy of this Research Output, please contact Hanlie Baudin at researchoutputs@hsrc.ac.za.
Abstract
Public (external) examinations have played a major role throughout the history of modern education in Africa. They serve a number of functions, the most important of which is to select students for limited places in successive levels in the education system. Public examinations also serve an accountability function for teachers and schools. Despite their central role, many criticisms have been made of their quality and their use. While education policies especially in Africa are intended to allocate scarce educational benefits in an objective and an unbiased way, concerns have sometimes been expressed that they discriminate against some communities, rural populations, girls and students whose first language differs from that of the examination. In order to address these issues most of the examination bodies or councils resort to a number of manipulations of the examination marks in the name of adjustment, standardization, moderation, compensation or quotas. This paper will examine a myriad of issues related to manipulation of national examination results and argue instead for improvement of the quality of the public examinations and appropriate use of examination results.-
Related Research Outputs:
- Educational research in the African development context: rediscovery, reconstruction and prospects
- Formative evaluation and monitoring of curriculum 2005 implementation in Gauteng: workshop for educators & principles
- With Africa for Africa: towards quality education for all
- Report to the EFA regional technical advisory group, UNESCO sub-regional office for Southern Africa on EFA assessment
- Education and culture: report-back from session 2
- Education emergency
- Education and health facilities (including gender and HIV/AIDS)
- The case for additive bilingual/multilingual models
- The merits of mother-tongue education
- Automated diagnostic feedback to learners, teachers, parents and education managers from large-scale school-achievement assessment
- Towards effective literacy teaching and learning in African education: a research and development proposal
- Assessment and education quality in South Africa
- Challenges for piloting an integrated, effective national assessment system in South Africa
- Challenges for improving learning in South African schools
- Grade 9 and 12 exams: marking, coding and data management
- Assessment systems in education: purpose, development and applications
- International review on assessment systems in Zambia
- Literacy and bi/multilingual education in Africa: recovering collective memory and expertise
- Histoire, recherche actuelle et salle de classe: approches multilingues pratiques pour former les enseignants en Afrique
- Development and implementation of an effective assessment system