Published 19 May 2022
Basseterre
Buckie Got It, St.Kitts and Nevis News Source
M.O.E. ST. KITTS AND NEVIS HOSTS PARENT SENSITIZATION
SESSION ON K.A.L
Basseterre: St. Kitts, Friday, May 20, 2022: Parents of grades 4 and 6 students from primary schools within the Federationparticipated in an assessment sensitization session on Thursday May 19, on the Microsoft (MS) Teams platform. The session hosted by the Curriculum Development Unit (CDU) was aimed at bringing awareness and providing clarification surrounding the new assessment – Key-Stage Assessment of Learning (KAL).
Director of the CDU Mrs. Amanda Edmead explained that KAL as an assessment tool provide data which is used to guide curriculum planning for the next year.
“The purpose of KAL is really to determine the effectiveness of the curriculum delivery. It is also used to inform educational decision making and guide continuous school and system improvement and also to serve as an accountability measure. We [MOE] use KAL to guide our planning and decision making. It is a systematic tool where we [MOE] get evidence about what is happening in schools, evidence of what the children are learning and that information is then used to guide what it is we do for the next year,” Mrs. Edmead said.
Clarifying that KAL is not a new Test of Standards (TOS), Mrs. Edmead stated:
“KAL is not a new Test of Standards. The Test of Standards, we have discontinued it. We are no longer doing Test of Standards because there were some challenges that we had with Test of Standards.”
Sensitizing parents about the subjects and content that would be assessed this year, Mrs. Ornella Bacchus, Assessment Coordinator stated,
“KAL this year will be centered around two subjects: Language Arts and Mathematics. The content that would be on the national assessment this year would not cover any content for Term 3 in the school year. All the learning outcomes and the curriculum outcomes that would be on the assessment would come from Term 1 and Term 2. We [CDU] are only assessing the two subject areas this year because we know that we’ve missed a lot of school time and that this school year has been short and we don’t want to overwhelm the children in any way.”
Addressing the concerns of the parents as it relates to preparing students for the upcoming assessment, Ms. Zahnela Claxton, Principal Education Officer Ministry of Education, Nevis explained
“In order to help our students to prepare, and parents this is a major part of your contribution; we want our students to eat properly, get plenty of exercise and rest. There is no need for additional academic preparation or extra classes.”
Ms. Claxton reminded parents “the assessments are designed to test the system of education, not the students. The results will be used to make the system [Education] better so that students have even better opportunities to reach their full potential.”
