By Godfrey AKON
The Executive Secretary of Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, Dr Hamid Bobboyi, has said the commission has concluded plans to conduct an internationally accepted National Assessment of Learning Achievement in Basic Education, NALABE.
Bobboyi disclosed this at a 5-day workshop for the development of test items for 2022 NALABE held in Kaduna, where he also stated that UBEC and UNICEF have put everything together for the conduct of an internationally accepted National assessment.
The UBEC boss noted that the workshop was aimed at generating the test items in four core subjects in primary 3, 5, and JSS 2, as well as development of assessment framework that will help to come up with the test blueprint that will guide in test items, objectives and content.
Bobboyi who was represented by the Deputy Executive Secretary of the Commission, Prof Bala Zakari, said the workshop will also produce a development test blueprint and generate test items that will be trial tested for standardization.
According to him, since the inception of UBEC, the commission has so far conducted 5 studies, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2011 and 2017 based on its mandate as enshrined in the UBE act of 2004.
A statement by UBEC’s Head of Public Relations/Protocol, Mr. David Apeh, said 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 education system.
Also speaking, UBEC’s Director of Quality Assurance, Mallam Mansir Idris, stressed 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.
Idris 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, where previous assessment exercise in Nigeria were previous assessment exercise were reviewed an area of improvement were identified.
