The Practice of Continuous Assessment in Teacher Training Colleges in Ghana

Abstract

The study examined whether the Continuous Assessment (CA) programme was being practised the way it was intended in the teacher training colleges in Ghana. A descriptive survey design was used with semi-structured questionnaires and classroom observations as the modes of data collection. Three colleges were randomly selected from among the 7 teacher training colleges in the Western and Central Regions of Ghana. Eighty tutors in the selected colleges and a stratified random sample of 450 students aged between 20 and 25years were used. The study showed that CA is not being properly practised in the teacher training colleges. The result of this was that CA marks were generated any how and were, therefore, unreliable. The participants doubted that the CA scores were being used by the examining body as a component of students’ final grade. It is recommended that among others, in-service training on CA and item construction should be organized for all tutors of the colleges, and the system of external moderation should be introduced..