Students’ Perception and Readiness on School-Based Assessment

Abstract

School-Based Assessment (SBA) was implemented in Malaysia in stages, starting with form one secondary school students in 2012. After a few years of implementation, the SBA has raised many concerns among educational practitioners nationwide. Previous studies highlighted several implications due to perception and readiness of the stakeholders, leaving much room for improvement of SBA implementation in several countries. Hence, this study was conducted to investigate students’ perception and readiness concerning the SBA implementation. The survey study was conducted among 336 lower secondary school students located in different geographical areas. The data were collected using questionnaire and were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The result indicates that the students have moderate perception and readiness for SBA, and there is no difference between urban and suburban school students. It has been found that students were not serious when faced with SBA assessment components and not well prepared for continuous assessment. The implication is that students in form one in secondary school should be well informed of the SBA system implementation, so that they understand the impact of SBA on their final grade. Generally, the implementation of SBA throughout of the schooling system will benefit the students and the country development, but must through a careful planning.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n6p189