Teacher Concerns Regarding the Adoption of Continuous Assessment: The Case of Kwekwe District Secondary Schools, Zimbabwe

Paul Chanda
Department of Policy Studies and Leadership
Midlands State University, Zimbabwe
Email: chandapaulos@gmail.com

Abstract: The study sought to interrogate the views of secondary school teachers as implanters of the Continuous Assessment (CA) practice, a reform initiative adopted by the Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ) through the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE). Some10 secondary school teachers were selected on the basis of convenience from five departments in one of the schools used by MoPSE for administration of education in the Kwekwe district of Zimbabwe. As this was a small scale qualitative investigation, focus group discussions and interviews were used to collect data from informants. The findings were categorised according to different Stages of Concern (SoC) and then analysed. The findings revealed that the success of CA largely depends on ongoing training of teachers in addition to, administrative support and provision of adequate resources. Recommendations for effective implementation included guiding teachers through change process of implementing CA by offering ongoing professional development, procurement of resources of all kinds, effective monitoring and evaluation of CA. Above all concerted effort is needed to address the teachers’ concerns as this will motivate them to effectively implement CA.