The decision of the government to introduce Continuous Assessment in the primary schools is a positive sign which is bound not only to reduce the importance of the external examination but give back to teachers their due place and allow the pupils to be assessed by the teachers who are the ones who know them best. Our pupils have a right to an assessment format that will promote real learning and true literacy. It is imperative that they are given reliable, timely, valid and meaningful assessment that is not only fair and equitable but also challenging.

Educational experts and educational policy makers came up with the concept of Continuous Assessment because they were bothered by a number of questions: (i) how a pupil is graded who is just good at taking examinations and only ?pull things together? as they near the end of a programme of instruction?, (ii) is it possible for a short examination to adequately assess what a pupil has learnt over a long period of schooling?, (iii) why are pupils taught for a whole year and then given just a one-and-half hour paper to determine whether or not they know the subject?, (iv) how a pupil is graded who happens to fall ill and could not write the final examinations? and (v) will an examination be fairer if there is a combination of end of year examinations and a series of Continuous Assessments?

Introduction and implementation of Continuous Assessment in the Mauritian schools, if introduced and implemented, will be in line with the current international trend and thinking in examination and assessment: ?educational assessment provides the necessary feedback we require in order to maximise the outcomes of educational efforts?. These kinds of assessment of pupil?s learning provide objective evidences and data which are necessary in the decision-making and planning processes in education.

● Purposes of Continuous Assessment

Which forms of assessment to be used really depends what the purposes of assessment are. Examinations and Continuous Assessment serve different purposes. The former is carried out at the end of a course of study by sitting an examination or submitting a major collection of work normally called portfolios. These kinds of assessment are almost invariably carried out for summative purposes. They determine whether pupils can proceed to the next stage of the course or have satisfactorily completed the course unit being assessed or can contribute to the final mark, grade or degree classification. Continuous Assessment, on the other hand, is carried out on an on-going basis while pupils are actually working their way through a course. It is based on a radically different premise, namely, that the best and fairest way to assess pupils? performance is to assess each stage of a course as soon after it has been completed as possible, or in some cases, while the work is actually being carried out. The reason behind this argument is that this is much more useful and valuable to the pupils since it (i) provides them with on-going feedback on their performance and encourages them to attempt to master material as they actually work through a course rather than leaving the real learning process to the very end and (ii) allows pupils to demonstrate their development and ability on an on-going basis, so that the pupil who works steadily and consistently well but is not very good at sitting examinations is not placed at a disadvantage in comparison with the idle pupils who do the least amount of work needed to pass such examinations, or the pupils who are very skilful and comfortable at taking examinations but otherwise are not particularly competent or able.

Certainly, the Continuous Assessment approach fits in well with three current trends in education, namely, the move to make assessment a more integral part of the learning process ?assessment for learning?, the shift from assessment of ?content? to assessment of ?process? and the increasing use of units and module in courses.

● Benefits of Continuous Assessment

One of the benefits of Continuous Assessment lies in its being guidance oriented. Since it will involve data gathering over a long period of time, it will yield more accurate data reaching the teachers early enough to modify instruction. This could play a vital role in diagnosing and providing remediation in areas of pupil? weaknesses if properly anchored in what occurs in classrooms. Since Continuous Assessment is an approach that would capture the full range of pupil? performance, teachers would be able to assess pupil? progress and would have ample time to provide remedial help.

Another benefit of Continuous Assessment is that it places teachers at the centre of all performance-assessment activities where they really belong. It encourages more teacher participation in the overall assessment or grading of his/her pupils. If teachers are given opportunities to select and review assessments, they will become involved and knowledgeable in the process and this will enable teachers to integrate assessment and assessment results into their instructional and teaching practices.

Other major benefits of Continuous Assessment could be listed as follows: (i) covers the syllabus much more extensively than any examinations; in some cases it covers virtually all aspects of the pupils? work, thus greatly increasing the validity of the assessment process, (ii) since it allows the use of a far wider range of assessment techniques than examinations, Continuous Assessment can be used to test a correspondingly wider range of skills, including non-cognitive skills of various types. It thus makes it easier for teachers to match their assessment methods with the learning outcomes being assessed, (iii) emphasises less on pure memory (particularly comparatively short-term memory) than examinations. True education has been described as ?what is left after the facts have been forgotten?, and Continuous Assessment certainly facilitates such education, (iv) encourages regular, systematic study and discourages last-minute cramming, thus rewarding pupils who work steadily and conscientiously throughout their courses. It also reduces the domination of both teaching and learning by the requirements of the final examinations, (v) teachers will stop to teach to test, (vi) indicates early the likely performance of pupils, something that can be of great help to the pupils themselves, (vii) provides an on-going picture of how individual pupils develop and mature as they work their way through a course, something that can again be of considerable use to both pupils and teachers. It can also provide evidence of exactly what has been learned by a particular stage of the course, (viii) constitutes an extremely useful vehicle for on-going course monitoring and evaluation, providing teachers with early warning of any problems or weaknesses, thus enabling them to take appropriate measures to improve teaching and (ix) reduces the intense stress that many pupils experience when preparing for and sitting final examinations.

?(?)it is high time that the final grading of pupils in the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains of learning systematically takes account of all their performances during a given period of schooling and not at a particular time.?

● Success of Continuous Assessment

How successful Continuous Assessment is will depend on the planning and organisation of the scheme. The Ministry and the teachers will have a major responsibility in (i) ensuring that the scheme is progressive and properly integrated, and that the different assessment approaches are appropriately matched to the objectives, learning outcomes or competences that they are intended to assess, (ii) informing the pupils exactly what they are expected to do, and making sure that the requirements and ?ground rules? are properly adhered to, (iii) ensuring that other members of teaching staff involved in the teaching of the course are also fully informed of the plans, (iv) ensuring that any written instructions or guidelines provided to the pupils are clear, unambiguous and helpful, (v) making sure that appropriate opportunities are created for pupils to discuss the scheme with the teachers who are involved, both before they embark on the scheme and during the scheme itself, (vi) not setting major assignments too early in a course; beginning with simple assignments and then making them progressively more demanding, so that pupils develop their competence and build up their confidence in a systematic way, (vii) making sure that pupils have sufficient time to prepare for and carry out each element of the Continuous Assessment programme, particularly if this involves fact-finding or research of some sort, (ix) making sure that the pupils are not over-assessed by the teachers. Too many assessments can be counter-productive, and can cause pupils unnecessary stress, (x) monitoring standards carefully to ensure consistency between the marking of different pupils? work, ensuring that standards are maintained from one year to another, and demonstrating fitness for purpose. This is particularly important if several people are involved in the marking, (xi) allowing sufficient time for adequate marking and comment on the pupils? work, but trying to ensure that they receive feedback in a reasonable time, (xii) remembering that full and constructive feedback is an essential feature of Continuous Assessment, particularly if it is being used for formative purposes and (xiii) providing all the support and facilities in each school for the smooth implementation of the scheme. This would mean devising proper procedures to ensure that results from different schools are comparable, quality control, recruitment and the use of classroom assistants for effective management of the scheme, better remuneration for teachers and classroom assistants, smaller classes to be able to manage the scheme and a proper procedure for moderation.

● Conclusion

The idea of introducing Continuous Assessment is not new. It has been discussed, advocated and flagged over and over again by many of us including the likes of Professors Patricia Broadfoot, Desmond Nuttall and Pritam Singh during their consultancy periods in Mauritius but without any success for all sorts of reasons. For example, in the 1996, Continuous Assessment was introduced at Standard IV level in an attempt to counteract the unfairness of judging pupils on a one performance at the end of year examination and also to influence the teaching of some of the skills not tested in the examination and which were felt to be neglected, above all aural skills in languages. Unfortunately, that project was piloted in a few schools and like many projects initiated at MES at that time, met a sad failure. As the pupils in the pilot scheme still had to take the CPE examination in Standard VI, the focus of teachers remained on the almighty CPE examination and they had no commitment to the Continuous Assessment project. Perhaps, the time was not right for that project.

There is no excuse for its failure this time round. If the current government is serious about (i) world class education, (ii) the future of our children and also their performance, (iii) assessing our children holistically and effectively and (iv) improving examinations and assessment standards in terms of validity, reliability and credibility, then it is high time that the final grading of pupils in the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains of learning systematically takes account of all their performances during a given period of schooling and not at a particular time.

What we need is not a snapshot of events but the whole film and nothing less. Such an approach would be more holistic, representing the pupil in his/her entirety and may be the beginning of the end of CPE. It?s high to kill this monstrous dinosaur which has put so much pressure on our children and their parents. ?It will begin with the decisions that the teachers perform on the first day of school and end with the decisions that the teachers make on the pupils regarding end-of-year grading and promotion? (Ellington, 1996).

Dr. Seeookumar CHUMUN