Let’s face it, I don’t know many teachers (actually I don’t know any teachers) who are raving fans of the National Assessments that the department of education have implemented at grade 3, 6 and 9 level.

Without trying to sound negative about the department, let me defend the national assessments by saying that in principle, they are actually a good idea and allow the relevant authorities the opportunity to monitor the school system and assess the effectiveness of the national curriculum. However, the national assessments have proven to be a strain and burden on the backs of already strained and burdened teachers.

National assessments a tedious task
In particular I think of the national assessments of November 2008. I was visiting schools at the time and I listened through complaint after complaint from the principals and teachers I was in contact with.

Many commented that they had no forewarning of the national assessments. Many commented that the teachers now had extra marking to do on top of marking their end of year school assessments. Still others commented that their school had not budgeted for the required amount of paper it would cost to print the assessment for each learner.

I recall that it was around 2:30pm on a certain Thursday during November that I received a call from our MD Dereck. I had just come out of a meeting with a principal from a school in George. Dereck told me that he had just got a call from Sid Viljoen, principal at Arcadia Primary School in Pretoria. Arcadia have been an XT user for nearly two years and Sid had a very interesting story to tell relating to the national assessments.

A simply yet brilliant solution we hadn’t even thought about
Turns out that some Arcadia Primary teachers typed the questions and memo of the grade 6 Mathematics national assessment directly into EvaluNet XT. The teachers then brought the grade 6 learners into the computer centre, class by class, and got the learners to complete the national assessment in XT. As soon as each and every learner clicked “Hand in my assessment” their assessments were automatically marked and the results immediately available for the teachers to send to the department of education.

Dynamic Assessment Technology
Arcadia saved valuable time and cut out the unnecessary printing costs associated with the national assessments because the learners did their assessments interactively using XT. The Dynamic Assessment Technology available in XT allows your teachers to save time and your school to save money.

Visit the XT website to learn more