In April 2011 LCD supported our four target woreda education offices to conduct common learner tests in core subject areas.
A bank of test items was prepared for Grade 4 English, Maths and Science, and for Grade 7 English, Maths, Chemistry, Physics and Biology. A total of 25,600 learners took the tests and the papers have been marked and the results analysed. The results form an incredibly important benchmark for individual schools, clusters, woredas and the Wolaita zone as a whole.
The ‘gaps’ identified through the tests (i.e. those topic areas where learners perform weakly) are also used as the basis for developing teacher training courses in core subject knowledge and methodology. It is clear that whilst marks remain low, the overall trend is towards improvement of the results since 2010. LCD has contracted a learner test specialist to conduct a longitudinal analysis of our test results since 2008.
