Teachers’ Perception of School-Based Assessment in Nigerian Secondary Schools

Abstract

The study investigated the perceived effect of SBA on Nigerian secondary school teachers, with the specific aim of
determining the preparedness of the teachers to conduct SBA as well as the perceived effect of the SBA on their teaching
practices and students’ learning. The population for the study consist of secondary school teachers in the six South-Western
State of Nigeria. From each of the six states, six secondary schools were purposively selected based on owner ship of the
schools. A total number of 36 secondary schools were involved in the study. From each of the schools 15 teachers were
randomly selected to take part in the study. Thus the study sample size was 540 teachers. An adapted questionnaire was used
to collect the study data. The adapted questionnaire was named “Nigerian Teachers’ Perception of School-Based Assessment
Questionnaire”. This questionnaire was divided into four sections of A, B, C and D. Sections B, C, and D of the instrument
respectively have a test-retest reliability of (r = 0.72, 0.77 & 0.73 ? = < .05) over a period of two weeks and Cronbach coefficient
alpha (0.79, 0.70 and 0.71). The result indicated that more than half of the sampled teachers were not adequately prepare to
conduct SBA. However, teachers from Federal Government Colleges were better prepared. It was also discovered that more
than fifty percent of the teachers have a negative perception of the effect of SBA on their teaching practices and on students’
learning. The study therefore suggests effective monitoring of educational policy implementation and timely in-service training
for all teachers irrespective of school owner.