Stakeholders urge MoE and GES to ensure an incident-free NST
As the Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service and their partners gear up for Ghana’s first National Standardized Test, some stakeholders in the sector have advised organizers of the test to take a critical look at the test reports for them to achieve the intended purpose of improving teaching and learning.
Although Executive Director of Africa Education Watch Mr Kofi Asare bemoaned the fact that in the past two years since the introduction of the new syllabus there have been no textbooks for teaching and learning, he believes this assessment is an opportunity to take a critical look at the areas they need to improve else the call and purpose of the test will be defeated.
For Mr Peter Anti Partey of the Institute for Education Studies (IFEST), the organization of this test is coming too late since it was decided 6 months ago. He stressed the fact that for examinations, adequate preparation is key for the pupils and those organizing the test as well.
He lamented on the inconvenience the pupils and teachers have to go through due to the extension of the academic calendar since they were supposed to vacate next week and the test is to be carried out although they wished the test could have been postponed to early next term.
But since it will soon be carried out he has urged the Education Ministry and GES to make sure the test is carried smoothly and incident-free else for them[IFEST] as an organization will criticize them[MoE and GES] to make sure that all loopholes are resolved.
The National Standardized Test is aimed at assessing the pupils and using the data to identify shortfalls in the sector and improve on them.
It is a one-day assessment in English and Mathematics for class four pupils in public schools and will be thirty-five multiple choice question each.
A total of 470,768 pupils in 15,391 schools are expected to participate in the test at the 2,850 designated examination centres which will accommodate 200 pupils per centre.
By: Stella Annan | myactiveonline.com Twitter @activetvgh
