Assessment Systems

Assessment is an integral part of a teacher's role in schools in Papua New Guinea (PNG). International research on effective assessment has led to changes in the way in which students are assessed and how the assessment marks are used. Traditionally, in PNG, assessment meant tests at the end of a unit of work and examinations at the end of the year. The marks were used to inform students, teachers, parents and guardians and other stakeholders about individual student's achievement, and made comparisons between students. Assessment had little to do with supporting the learning process. There is now a shift from less tests and exams to more variety of assessment tasks administered to improve student learning in schools. This book evaluated the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) and captured two aspects of the VCE model that could be considered for inclusion in the PNG assessment system, namely: Work requirements (WRs) and common assessment tasks (CATs) with a proposed pilot study.