Continuous Assessment as Predictor of Basic Education Certificate Examination Mathematics Performance in Public Secondary Schools in Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

Continuous assessment is an important component in the assessment of students' overall performance in both internal and external examinations. Continuous assessment takes into consideration students' performance in the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains of behavior from the time of entry and exit from the school. The extent to which continuous assessment would predict the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) performance has always attracted the attention of researchers, teachers, and education stakeholders.  This study, therefore, investigated whether continuous assessment scores would predict BECE mathematics performance in public secondary schools in Abio-Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State. The study adopted the correlational and ex-post facto research designs. The population of the study comprised all public secondary school students who sat for the 2015 Basic Education Certificate Examination in mathematics. The sample of the study consisted of 682 students (425 males and 257 females). Purposive sampling technique was used to select the sample made up of only students who sat for 2015 BECE mathematics in public secondary schools in Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State. Three hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Data were collected from the Local Government Area Basic Education Board. The results of the study revealed that continuous assessment is a predictor of mathematics Basic Education Certificate Examination. The study recommended that the implementation of continuous assessment practice should be strictly monitored by the Basic Education Board in Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of River State.