GRADE Two pupils are set to be assessed at the end of their infant school to establish their development as part of new measures introduced by government in the school curriculum.
Feluna Nleya,Staff Reporter
Primary and Secondary Education minister Lazarus Dokora said the assessment was important to determine if the children are ready to proceed to the next level of learning.
Dokora told NewsDay in an interview last Friday that the assessment had been prompted by the poor performance by pupils in higher grades.
“This assessment we are talking about is meant to determine whether a child we have in Grade Three in terms of years, is the child also in Grade Three in terms of knowledge,” Dokora said.
“Is there evidence enough that the child is really in Grade Three? If the child is not, that is what we call performance lag.
“So the programme, which is meant to address the difference between the child’s grade and what the child knows, is called lag address programme. It is meant to close that gap.”
Dokora added: “In a district or in a school, we check whether the child is in the appropriate grade in terms of knowledge and if they are not we then use a module designed by Zimbabwe Early Learning Assessment (Zela), which will tell you what the child’s deficiency is and we will be able to address those challenges.”
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He said the introduction of the Early Childhood Development (ECD) A class and B class was due to the realisation that performance was being affected at the foundation.
The ministry, Dokora said, had already trained 2 000 para-professionals to take charge of the ECD programme.
“We realised that performance at the top was being affected by the foundation. That is when we said let’s introduce ECD B in 2004, then as we moved on we realised that it was still lagging behind. We then introduced module A which means the kids should start at 4 years so as to strengthen the foundation of the children,” Dokora explained.
“So we now have two years that we have put to foundation to consolidate a child’s understanding. But in ECD A at 4 years they are not being taught to write but it is where self-perception is built. Then at six years they go to Grade One, and at seven years Grade Two. The four years constitute the infant school module.”
Continuous assessment, Dokora said, would enable the ministry to know the child from the beginning to the end of high school.
“We want to know the journey because some children are musical and we need an early detection. Some are very practical and that’s important to know. If we know that we will know how to help the child so that they are not just forced onto a narrow grid. We want to give the children an opportunity,” Dokora added.
“It’s more like a diagnostic tool to enable us to know and we know how to help the child. We make learning more efficient and more focused.”
