CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The need to evaluate students after an effective teaching and learning process is necessary. To this end, educationist have introduced a method of evaluation known as continuous assessment, which forms an integral part of Nigerians new policy on education published in 1977 are revised in 1981, 1983, 1987 and 1989. The new policy stipulates among other things, the use of continuous assessment for students performances instead of using the orthodox single, end of course, of year, national or certificate examination. According to Nigerians policy on education (1981) the primary education will have the duration of six years, secondary education for six years which is further sub-divided into three years junior secondary school (JSS) and three years senior secondary schools (SSS) either vocational or academics. It enables students to acquire further knowledge and develop skills. The senior secondary school is for those willing to have a comprehensive with a core curriculum designed to broaden pupil’s knowledge and out look and large number of elective subjects for a choice of career. These new policy started taking effect fro 1982/1983 academic sessions.
In 1976, universal free primary education (UPE) was introduced, further more, the new policy on education popularly known as the 6-3-3-4 systems came into being. To this end most state in Nigeria desired to train teachers to be able to meet up with new challenges in education but unfortunately enough trained teachers have not been available to man the education industry. The new policy on education (6-3-3-4) system was concerned itself with qualified and dedicated teachers because of the emphasis on the use of continuous assessment.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMS
According to the federal ministry of education (1980) handwork, continuous assessment may be viewed as a method of finding out what the pupils have gained from learning experiences in respect of knowledge, thinking, reasoning, character development etc continuous assessment is systematic, comprehensive, cumulative and guidance oriented and requires a variety of evaluation strategies to deal with all domains of learning. This new evaluation technique is thus designed to systematically cover all of the student’s performances in class test, home assignment, project, interviews and other school activities, weekly, monthly or periodically throughout their entire duration of the student’s course.