EXAMINING THE DISTRICT EDUCATION OFFICE'S INFLUENCE ON ACADEMIC ASSESSMENT: A CASE STUDY OF END-OF-TERM EXAMINATIONS IN THE MFANTSIMAN MUNICIPALITY

Hawa Yamoa Anakwa, Phd

City University, Cambodia

Historically, classroom teachers play a pivotal role in preparing students for both internal and external assessment in any student's life. Instructors engage students in many formative practices, such as exercises, group work, homework, projects and the like, which provide real-time feedback to inform instructional decisions and address students' needs (Black & William,2009; Hattie & Timperley, 2007). Teachers understand their students in terms of their vocabulary usage and expressions during the examination period. According to Department of Education. (2000d), Norms and standards for teachers, Government Notice No.82; Government Gazette 415 (20844), South Africa, identifies a teacher as an assessor with the role to design and manage both formative and summative assessment in a way that is appropriate to the level and purpose of the learning and meet the requirement of accrediting body. This affirms that the best outcome can be obtained from any assessment form. The classroom teacher is the appropriate person to write the test items for their students. That is different from the situation in the Mfantsiman Municipality in the Central Region, Ghana.

The landscape of education assessment has witnessed a notable shift in some systems, with the District Education Office taking over the organization of End-of-Term Examinations instead of the classroom teachers. This transformation has sparked discussion regarding its impact on the assessment process and the overall quality of education. Although it has been the traditional duty of the teacher to write test items during the end-of-term assessment, the Mfantsiman Education Directorates have taken the responsibility of getting questions for students during this time in the academic period.

There must be a peculiar reason for a Directorate to decide to organize exams for all schools within the Municipality. According to the Municipal Examination Coordinator," the Directorate agreed to organize examinations by the head teachers to bring standardization and consistency in the administration of end-of-term examinations across all primary schools within the Municipality. This enables the Directorate to monitor how teachers teach according to the required curriculum because, ultimately, all students will be assessed with the same questions, so they must be up to the task. This practice helps promote sound teaching practices among teachers.

Standardisation of examination practice can promote equality by ensuring that all students, regardless of their school or location, are assessed using the same criteria and standards. This can help reduce disparities in educational outcomes among schools within the district.

The Municipality's decision to take over the organisation of end-of-term examinations in primary schools has also presented numerous challenges for teachers and students. Teachers perceive Centralised examination as a loss of autonomy and control over their usual classroom assessment practices. When another body is taking over the responsibility of the classroom instructor, teachers tend to be reluctant to comply with new policies imposed on them by the district education office. This practice diminishes teachers' unique skills in constructing test items for their students.

The Directorate's standardization of exams prevents teachers from tailoring or aligning the needs of their pupils during question construction. Through this practice, students at any level, even those in kindergarten, write the same exams but forget that every student is unique, has individual needs, and has different mastery levels. Only their classroom teacher can assess them at their level, but the district comes in during this critical time of assessment practice.

Most of the time, the nature of the content and the wordiness of the words could be more explicit and more familiar to the students. Some may need to use the pronouns of words in the question. In one of Socrates' quotes, Socrates stated, "Understanding a question is half an answer" This centralised kind of test leaves students halfway. If students need help understanding the item statement, there is no way they can provide accurate answers to the question. This is one of the significant worries of teachers within the Mfantsiman districts.

Centralised systems need more flexible and timely administrative control. There is a delay in sending test papers to schools, and most often, the question papers and answer sheets are short during this period. Teachers have to visit the printing company to correct these discrepancies. This will lead to the leakage of questions to some schools, thereby discrediting the entire examination system.

In conclusion, the centralised system of organising examinations in the Mfantsiman district offers advantages such as standardisation and quality control. It also presents challenges, including teachers losing their foremost duty to administer examination questions to pupils they have thought, according to the GES Code of Conduct, Part 3 Rule 3.2 (iii):' A teacher shall set, mark and manage their end-of-term examination'. However, teachers within the Mfantsiman Municipality are denied their rights.

The pupil cannot answer all the questions because the examinable curriculum still needs to be completed by teachers due to the pupil's individual learning space. Due to printing misappropriation, some schools receive their questions earlier than others, which results in the questions being leaked to other students. This can lead to unfair advantages for some students, compromising the integrity of the examination system.

It is crucial to find a balance between centralised oversight and local autonomy. This balance will ensure that examination practices within the district contribute to positive educational outcomes while addressing the diverse needs of the students and allowing teachers to nurture the real potential of their students irrespective of their mastery level. This balanced approach offers hope for a more effective and equitable assessment system.

In summary, The norms and standards for teacher education (Department of Education 2000 CA) identify a teacher as an assessor who has the role of being able to design and manage both formative and summative assessments in ways that are appropriate to the level and purpose of the learning and meet the requirement as credulity bodies and the GES Code of conduct also spells out a teachers role when it comes to assessing a student. A day will come when teachers within the Mfantsiman Municipality can assess their pupils during the end-of-term and year examinations.

REFERENCE

Black, Paul and William, Dylan (1998) 'Assessment and Classroom Learning', Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 5:1, 7-74 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10969595980050102

Department of Education South Africa, 2000. Norms and standards for teachers. Government Gazette, 415 (South Africa). www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis-document/20149/20844.pdf

Ghana Education Service, Code of Conduct for Staff. Part 3, Section 3.2 (ii), June 2017. https://ges.gov.gh/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/GES-CODE-OF-CONDUCT.pdf

l Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81–112. https://doi.org/10.3102/003465430298487