Assessment practices in Africa today

The 1990 Jomtien World Conference ‘Education for All’ and the 2000 World Education Forum in Daka encouraged governments in developing countries to shift their emphasis from measuring outcomes to establishing the extent to which their education systems could provide quality in education (Howie, 2012, p. 81). Within the global economy, governments are held responsible for providing adequate education. This increased political pressure has led to direct links between national economies and education. The purpose of this paper is to identify tensions found in the various types of literacy and numeracy assessments within Africa; from large international high-stakes testing to local classroom formative and summative assessments. Four high-stakes tests commonly found in Africa are discussed. They are: school-leaving exams which assess all subjects at Grade 12 level; Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS); The Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ); and, finally, the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). I discuss four principles of summative and formative assessments based on the work of Johnston and Costello (2005, p. 256-265). They include: assessment as a social practice, minds in society, representation and interpretation and, lastly, practices of teacher assessments.