Online Reporter
For all its positives, the continuous assessment learning activities (Calas), was an immense challenge to learners, educators and pupils.
Kids had to do multiple standardised projects and researches, sometimes all at the same time. This meant a lot of work for them; they spent more of their time doing the projects and less on other subjects.
It, too, was difficult, especially, for resource-poor kids and parents who did not have a reliable internet connection to do the Calas. In many cases in urban areas, parents ended up doing the assignments for their day-school children, which meant that the projects ended up not improving learners’ capabilities.
Calas actually amplified the divide between the rich and the poor, the urban learner and the rural learner. Elitism.
Teachers complained bitterly, as did parents.
After some consultations, the Government did the needful when scrapping Calas. The last classes to be examined using this model are writing their public tests in June. The Government directed that Calas be replaced by school-based projects with effect from last month.
The new system is set to be more impactful and relevant to the different school settings and resource profile of parents and their children. We don’t foresee any serious teacher asking his or her class to do projects that he or she knows kids would be unable to do for lack of a reliable internet connection and so on.
“The school-based projects are intended to be more practical, relevant, and aligned with the competencies we want our learners to develop. They provide a holistic approach to assessment, allowing students to apply their knowledge in real-world contexts,” our sister paper, Sunday News cited Mr Taungana Ndoro, the Communication and Advocacy Director in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education as saying yesterday.
He, however, expressed concern over the slow switch by schools from Calas to school-based projects.
The new thrust focuses on practical applications, with the number of areas covered by the non-examination process reduced from about eight per subject to one.
Primary school learners will now engage with a maximum of six learning areas, down from a minimum of 27, while learners in Form One to Four will have five compulsory learning areas.
At early childhood development level to Grade Two, learning areas have been reduced from 11 to six, with similar reductions applying at the junior level for Grades Three to Seven.
At secondary school level, compulsory core learning areas are being reduced from seven to five, with an inclusive and integrated approach catering for learners with special needs, including the provision of assistive devices.
Schools asked authorities to rethink Calas; authorities obliged, thus we urge schools to implement what they lobbied for by immediately making the switch to school-based projects.
