LAHORE: The Punjab Examination Commission (PEC) has organised a consultative stakeholders workshop to introduce formative assessment in all schools of the province.

The workshop titled “The New Deal 2018-23” was held at Quaid-i-Azam Academy for Educational Development on Wahdat Road.

International consultant Sir Williamson, School Education Department (SED) Secretary Dr Sohail Shehzad, PEC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tariq Iqbal and 60 other stakeholders including experts from non-formal basic education, public and private teachers, district government officials, academia and the civil society were present.

Earlier, the Punjab government had launched Assessment Policy Framework (APF) 2019 and replaced PEC’s policy of annual examinations of grade 5 and 8.

The APF 2019 had introduced three types of assessments i.e Large Scale Assessment (LSA), School Based Assessment (SBA) and Formative Assessment (FA).

The development and implementation of FA system required a detailed deliberation of APF, situation analysis of current assessment, classroom teaching and learning practices as well as the curriculum.

In formative assessments, teachers find out what their students understand so that they can adjust their teaching techniques and help them progress according to their individual learning capabilities so that every student can reach the mark of desired learning outcomes at his own pace.

The formative assessment also focuses on introducing a new system of teacher-led continuous classroom testing in the province to strengthen the learning practices of students by establishing linkages between the assessment, curriculum and the teacher development interventions.

PEC CEO Tariq Iqbal said the formative assessment is the most important component of the APF notified by the government.

“With the introduction of this policy, the regime of examination for assessment of the students of grade 5 and 8 has been replaced by assessment of students at the elementary level by reimagining the requirements of the system,” said Mr Iqbal.

SED Secretary Dr Sohail Shehzad expressed the will for the quick implementation of the newly-introduced assessment system for better learning systems across the province.

Published in Dawn, February 2nd, 2021