CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study:

Many educationists have defined continuous assessment in different ways. The handbook on continuous assessment (FMEST, 1999) defined continuous assessment as a mechanism whereby the final grading of students in the cognitive, effective and psychomotor domains of behaviour take into account in a systematic way, all his performance during a given period of schooling.

Adebib (1999) saw continuous assessment as a systematic and objective process of determining the extend of a student’s performance in all the expected changes in his behaviour. This is assessment of the students.

Ezewu and Okoye (1999) defined continuous assessment as a systematic and objective process of determining the extent of student’s performance in all the expected changed in his behaviour from the day he/she enters upon a course of study.

From the above definitions one can define continuous assessment as a system of assessment which is carried out as predetermined intervals for the purpose of monitoring and improving the overall performance of students and of the teaching learning environment.

In all secondary schools, continuous assessment accounts for thirty-percent (30%) of a student’s performance in each subject, while in higher institutions, like the polytechnic allow forty-percent (40%) and University allow thirty-percent (30%) for in-course assessment. The concept of continuous assessment is not new in education. In developed countries like United States, Canada, Australia and England, continuous assessment is inbuilt into the teaching learning process, that is why it is one of the distractive features of the new National Policy on Education. In Nigeria, there are different views about the concept to the extent that some of them are misconceptions. According to Okpala, Onocha and Oyedeji (2005) continuous assessment is not continuous testing of the cognitive ability of students.

What is practiced in many schools is continuous testing where teachers administer tests on student on a fortnightly or monthly basis. This approach does not differ from the old system of assessment. The mode of interpretation does