Rural primary school teachers' perceptions of continuous assessment and profiling: A case of Masvingo rural district primary schools, Zimbabwe

Abstract

Both formal and informal modes of education require assessment in order to measure if the learner has comprehended what was being taught. There are many types of assessment implemented in different types of educational institutions. Nowadays, continuous assessment and profiling is topical as a mode of learning assessment in many educational institutions worldwide, including Zimbabwe. This research paper attempts to unlock Zimbabwe rural primary school teachers’ perceptions of continuous assessment and profiling in rural primary schools of Masvingo district. This qualitative research was housed in the interpretivist paradigm and used a case study research design. The population of the study comprised rural primary schools from Masvingo, one of the provinces in Zimbabwe. Participants were purposively selected from different clusters to come up with a conveniently selected sample of 30 facilitators. Through interviews, the researcher sought the rural school teachers’ perceptions on continuous assessment and profiling of learners. The study established that teachers have positive and negative perceptions/views of continuous assessment. The positive responses showed that teachers view continuous assessment and profiling as a way to keep learners engaged on particular topics being learned. However, other participants stressed that continuous assessment and profiling were being hampered by lack of resource materials, high teacher-learner ratio, too much paper work and too broad content to be covered. The paper recommends that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education reduce the expected targets of continuous assessment, reduce teacher-learner ratio, and reduce the curriculum content, among others.