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Leonard Ncube Victoria Falls Reporter
THE 34th Association for Educational Assessment in Africa (AEAA) annual conference kicked off here yesterday amid calls for embracing modern ways of conducting learning and assessing academic progress.

The five-day conference ends on Friday and brings together experts and professionals from Africa and beyond.

Officially opening the conference, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Dr Lazarus Dokora said there is need for a paradigm shift to teaching.

“We are also embracing a new paradigm of assessment as learning, which is an assessment process, which occurs when learners get involved in tasks and activities, reflecting and monitoring their progress to inform their ongoing learning goals,” said Dr Dokora.

He said it was imperative that assessment approaches are tailored to produce learners who are equipped with knowledge and skills which are relevant for socio-economic development and necessary for survival in the 21st century.

AEAA endeavours to enhance the quality of education on the continent through the utilisation of best assessment practices, in line with its strategic plan running from this year to 2020.

He said the education system should be used as a platform for effectively educating the country’s citizens to become part of the human resources capital needed by commerce, industry and society at large.

Continuous assessment is a fairly holistic form of assessment in which learners take an active role in the learning process and are assessed on all their abilities, skills and behaviours, in other words, all their competencies.

Dr Dokora said the conference was an opportunity for Zimbabwe to fine tune its new curriculum, currently being finalised.

“The conference seeks to explore and seek ways of aligning learning outcomes to national goals, promoting innovative assessment initiatives that empower learners and to draw together synergies between assessment outcomes and sustainable development.

“It comes at an opportune time when the Zimbabwean education system is undertaking reforms according to the new curriculum whose thrust is to produce school graduates with skills pertinent to the needs of the 21st century,” added Dr Dokora.