Questions asked about primary school tests
Print Edition
A NEW qualitative assessment system for primary school pupils is to be rolled out across the city following the completion of trials involving first and second-graders, authorities said yesterday.
The announcement was made despite the fact that a poll conducted by the same authorities in January — four months after the trials began — found that most of the schools taking part had actually failed to implement the new methods.
In theory, the scheme does away with the traditional points-based marking system and instead awards youngsters one of four grades: excellent, good, pass or improvement needed.
“In the trials, the method was used to assess the performances of first and second-year pupils in Chinese, mathematics and English, but it will now be adapted to suit more (all primary) students and a wider range of subjects,” said Zheng Fangxian, director of the elementary education office at the Shanghai Education Commission.
However, in the January poll, more than 80 percent of the parents of 160,000 first and second-grade pupils said that their children had been required to sit mid-term exams.
Local woman Catherine Cai told Shanghai Daily that teachers at the school her son attends held a games-based event in the middle of the semester, allegedly as a way to apply the new system.
“But before they held the games, all of the children sat paper tests, which were exactly the same as they’ve always been,” she said.
“The teachers didn’t tell the pupils their scores, but at the parent-teacher meetings, all of the parents could see the marks their kids had been awarded. They were right there in the teachers’ notebooks,” she said.
Zheng claimed yesterday that the primary aims of the new assessment system are to reduce the pressure that examinations place on young children and to ensure that teachers use continual assessment to measure the abilities of each pupil.
“The new method should allow teachers to build up a better understanding of the skills and needs of each individual pupil,” he said.
While Zheng has confidence in the theory, another education official said the problem is more practical.
“Many of our teachers are not skilled enough to determine the individual interests and study habits of each child,” said Sun Zhong, deputy director of the education bureau of Zhabei District.
“And without an objective scoring system, different schools and teachers will apply different standards,” she said.
Refinements are necessary before the system can be rolled out effectively, the official said.
“We are exploring more practical methods of evaluation ... and are trying to enrich our educational system so that pupils are more stimulated and teachers get to know them better,” she said.
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