Compliance of grade 10 English first additional language school based assessment tasks with the curriculum and assessment policy statement in Nokotlou Circuit, Capricorn District, Limpopo Province

Abstract

Assessment is a crucial component in the learning and teaching environment. Many educators often go about assessment design by emulating their own teachers or predecessors. Gronlund (1993:1) argues that “despite the widespread use of achievement testing and the important role it plays in instructional programmes, many teachers receive little or no instruction on how to construct good achievement test.” Gronlund (1993) posits that the result is that there is no innovation towards good tests construction because many educators do not study the principles that guide effective test construction. Carey (1994:1) says that “effective teachers must also be proficient in testing, and proficiency in testing requires the synthesis of many different skills.” In Limpopo Province, especially in the under-resourced regions, the actual on-site practices by educators suggest that there are problems with the implementation of school based assessment tasks as prescribed by the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) through the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS). This problem is further echoed in the sentiments of some academics that are skeptical about the authenticity of marks generated by educators and schools. This loss of confidence in the assessment practices impacts negatively on the worth of the education of the learners and their readiness to take their place in the academic and vocational spheres. The purpose of this study is to find the degree of success and failure in the implementation and management of school based assessment (SBA) in English Additional First Language in Grade 10 classes. Grade 10 is a crucial level of entry into the Further Education and Training (FET) Phase in schools because it lays the foundation for focused, rigorous and careeroriented high school learning in South Africa.