By Felix Khanoba
The Universal Basic Education Commission UBEC has expressed it’s readiness to conduct an internationally accepted national assessment in the basic education sector.
The Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr Hamid Bobboyi, made this known at a five-day workshop for the development of test items for 2022 National Assessment of Learning Achievement in Basic Education (NALABE) in Nigeria held in Kaduna.
A statement signed by Head of Public Relations of UBEC, David Apeh and obtained by The AUTHORITY, said Bobboyi stated that the Commission and UNICEF have put everything together for the conduct of an internationally accepted national assessment.
The UBEC boss said the workshop was aimed at achieving the following objectives amongst others i. e to generate the test items in four core subjects in primary 3& 5, js 2, development of assessment framework that will help to come up with the test blueprint that will guide in test items, objectives and content.
According to him, the workshop was also geared towards producing a development test blueprint and generate test items that will be trial tested for standardization.
Represented by the Deputy Executive Secretary, Prof Bala Zakari, Bobboyi said since the inception of UBEC, the commission has so far conducted five studies in 2001, 2003, 2006, 2011 and 2017.
In a remark, the Director Quality Assurance, Mallam Mansir Idris, said the commission in its quest to conduct a national assessment that will be recognized and acceptable by stakeholders identified the need to collaborate and work closely with international agencies like, IEA, UNICEF, FCDO, and other agencies involved in large scale assessment for the development and standardized test items.
He noted that in September 2021, the commission in collaboration with UNICEF and International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) organized an international workshop on large scale assessment for basic education in Nigeria.
The workshop attracted evaluation experts, subject teachers from each of the states of federation, UBEC staff, among others.
The AUTHORITY reports that the national assessment is a survey of schools and learning to provide evidence about learners’ achievement in identified curriculum areas, such as, reading/literacy, mathematics/numeracy, science and other skills, for a clearly defined part of the education system.
