EXAMINATIONS: THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE SCHOOL

Abstract

At a time when the Province is taking a completely new look at education, it is wise to think again about the form and function of examinations. Why do we test and examine? Our reasons are many and varied. They will not be the same as those offered by parents or by students and we shall differ among ourselves depending on the age of the students we teach and the type of institution we teach in. Any one of us, if pressed, could perhaps advance three or four reasons in detail but we do not always realise that some of the functions we suggest are hardly compatible one with another. An examination devised to assess what a student has learned in high school is not necessarily the most efficient predictor of his success at university.