Education Cabinet Secretary (CS) Ezekiel Machogu has asked policymakers in African countries to interrogate the weaknesses of the assessments in respective national education systems.
Mr Machogu said that policymakers must come up with the right solutions to these challenges, noting that assessment is a critical pillar for the success of an education system.
The Cabinet Secretary made the remarks in a speech read on his behalf by the State Department for Basic Education Principal Secretary, Dr. Belio Kipsang during the closing ceremony of the 39th conference of the Association for Educational Assessment in Africa (AEAA) at a Nairobi hotel on Friday.
In attendance were the outgoing AEAA President, Mr Patrick Areghan, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of West African Examinations Council, Nigeria, and the incoming President-AEAA, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of KNEC, Dr David Njengere.
Mr Machogu said governments in Africa must also appreciate that challenges still emerge with the advancement of technology.
“We must openly deliberate on the best ways to ensure that no learner is left behind on account of assessment,” Mr Machogu observed.
Earlier, Dr. Kipsang said policymakers in education must think thoughtfully about how they will assess talent now that it has become an integral part of education.
He said they must design a fair assessment system to ensure that no child is left behind in determining the innate abilities children have.
Dr. Kipsang further expressed the need to initiate children into appreciating ICT as an education tool, saying educational systems should leverage technology as an educational as well as an assessment tool for the future.
In his speech, the outgoing President of AEAA, Mr Areghan said that assessment was central to an education system.
“The quality of education in a country is determined by the quality of assessment,” he observed, saying in turn that an education system is the substructure of everything else a country does or pursues.
In attendance were the Chairperson of the KNEC Council, Prof. Julius Omondi Nyabundi, and the Executive Secretary of AEAA, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of Examinations Council of Zambia, Dr. Michael Chilala.
The next AEAA conference will be held in August next year in Cape Town, South Africa.
By Joseph Ng’ang’a
