The implementation of continuous assessment by teachers in government-aided and private secondary schools in Arua District: a comparative analysis

Abstract

The comparatively examined the teachers’ effectiveness in the implementation of Continuous Assessment (CA) in government-aided and private secondary schools in Arua District. The specific objectives were: to compare how teachers have adapted to the setting of CA tasks; to evaluate the differences in how teachers score CA tasks and to compare the attitudes of teachers towards the implementation of CA in government-aided and private secondary schools in Arua District. This research was based on the Diffusion of Innovations Theory by Rogers, (2003). A Concurrent Design was employed with both quantitative and qualitative methods. The study consisted of 4 government-aided and 4 private secondary schools, 4 Directors of Studies as participants and 112 respondent teachers totaling 116 subjects. A simple random technique was used to select the schools and the teachers, while the Directors of Studies were purposively selected. Data was collected using self-administered questionnaires, document analysis checklist and in-depth interview guide. Audio recording was used to capture the interactions during interview sessions. Quantitative data was analysed using IBM SPSS (Version 21) while qualitative data was filtered and sorted according to codes, patterns and themes then it was descriptively explained under each objective. Findings revealed that in the private schools, the setting of CA tasks is not being done effectively because teachers have not yet properly adapted to this aspect of the CA reform, the scoring of CA tasks is done in similar way between the two school settings and all teachers hold related positive attitudes toward the implementation of CA reform. The study concluded that there are significant differences in how teachers have adapted to the setting of CA tasks in government-aided and private schools; there is no significant difference on teachers’ practice of scoring CA tasks in government-aided and private secondary schools and there is no significant difference in the teachers’ attitudes toward the implementation of CA reform in the government-aided and private secondary schools in Arua District. Among others, the study recommends that secondary school teachers should be regularly engaged in CPD activities to improve on their proficiency in CA blueprint construction, setting tasks, making assessment rubrics, working on the rating scale, and objectively scoring the students’ CA tasks. Lastly, the study suggested that other researchers should further explore the secondary school teachers’ attitudes toward CA as a strategy for improving the quality of education in Uganda.