CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
Continuous assessment is one of the new concepts introduced in the Nigeria educational system with the new national policy on education in short it is an interval part of the new system of education otherwise known as the 9-3-3-4 system. Assessment is an essential element in the educational process. A teacher must make some measurements of the extent to which the learning experiences of students have enabled them, achieve the stated objectives of the course of study.
Ohunche on Odili (2001) defines assessment as an involving the determination for the value and work of a thing implies making decision. The changing needs and attitude of individual children call for a continuous evaluation of such needs and trials in order to enable the children understand themselves better. Their teachers to improve on their teaching methods, the parents and guidance understood the children, so that educational vocational and personal social decision can be realistically made on them. Scholars have looked at the issues of the attitude of students towards assessment in educational system and have seen that the success education will ever offer is seriously tied to the facilities relevant to it. According to Peretomode (2007) stock of educational facilities in public school system in Nigeria is enormous even at the present state of their insufficient and inadequacy. They represent substantial financial outlay to the tax payer. Establishing new educational facilities is no longer that easy because of the current state of economic depression and constantly raising costs. Edem (2008) seeing the importance and position influence of school facilities to educational achievement of students said. It is the duty of the ministry or the board of education to make furniture’s, equipment, books and expendable materials available to schools. Their inadequacy constitutes another source of frustration and disillusion among teachers. African leaders earnestly desire good education programmes for their people, but in many cases the resources are so merger that little progress can be made.
According to Inyong Abia (2002) continuous assessment are the pivot on which the wheel of teaching and learning process rotates. As cited by Inyang Abia (2004) the use of continuous assessment is the most significant aspect of influence for students effective performance. According to Bayo (2005) the availability of continuous assessment in learning process have the potency for motivating and focusing learners attention on the lesson being presented.
According to Obi (2003), a good continuous assessment can make the following contributions. Promote the development of ready skills and encourage long term habits through ready, listening and etc those learning habits from the key to continuous success in school and to the personal encouragement of leisure this throughout line. Assessment is not merely testing (Osokoya, 2006), it is a process through which the quality of an individual work or performance is judged (Mwebaza, 2010). In relation to school setting. Greaney (2001) defines assessment as any procedure or activity that is designed to collect information about the knowledge, attitude, or skills of the learner or group of learners. Thus, in the context of education, assessment can be defined as a predetermined process through which the quality of a student’s performance in the three domains of educational objectives (cognitive, affective, and psychomotor) is judged. Assessment of students learning of curriculum contents in the area of knowledge, skills, and values is a major preoccupation of many educational reforms. This is because results from such assessment not only provide feedbacks regarding the educational progress of students but remain the authentic yardstick for gaining the effectiveness of the teacher, the quality of instruction and in part the functionality of any curriculum reform. Continuous assessment as an assessment carried out in an ongoing process (Mwebaza, 2010) is an objective judgment considered an important part of structured assessment purposely designed and administered to enable the teacher to evaluate some aspect of a students learning of a specific time.
A number of characterizations of continuous assessment exist in the literature. According to Agawam cited in Mwebaza (2010) continuous assessment not simply continuous testing. Continuous assessment does not solely depend on formal tests. Continuous assessment is more than giving a test; it involves every decision made by the teacher in class to improve students achievement. Continuous assessment as only a part of the field of educational evaluation is a method of evaluating the process and achievement of students in educational institutions (Yoloye, 2006). This means that continuous assessment could be used to predict future student’s performance in the final examinations and the possible success of individuals at the work place or on a particular job. Continuous assessment is a formative evaluation procedure concerned with finding out in a systematic manner, all gains that a student’s has made in terms of knowledge, attitudes and skills after a given set of learning experience (Ogunniyi, 2004). A more comprehensive definition of continuous assessment is given by Ezewu and Okoye (2007).