TEST ITEM GENERATION: A SURE WAY TO MEASURE TEACHING, LEARNING OUTCOMES – Ashibuogwu

By MAGNUS EMUJI

Delta State Commissioner for Primary Education, Dr. Kingsley Ashibogwu, has said the generation of test items is designed to measure the teaching and learning outcomes to ensure adherence to the outlined provisions of the school curriculum.

Ashibogwu stated this in Asaba on Monday while declaring open a workshop on the Generation of Test Items for the 2024 Cognitive and Placement Examination.

The Commissioner, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, Sir Augustine Oghoro, said the exercise was aimed at ensuring the generation of credible, reliable and valid test items.

He urged the participants to adhere to the ethics, integrity, confidentiality and credibility of conducting examinations.

Ashibuogwu said the workshop would create a unique forum for teachers with cognate experience in their subject areas to review the past evaluation instruments with a view to generating new ones in order to enrich the question bank such that at any given time, there would be enough items from which the Ministry could adequately and reliably draw for the assessment of pupils eligible for certificate examinations.

The Primary Education Commissioner commended the resource persons and subject specialists for their invaluable contributions towards the success of the previous year’s exercise.

Earlier in her welcome address, the Director of Examination and Standard in the Ministry, Mrs. Clementina Ojumah, reminded  participants that as specialists in their various subject areas they were expected to generate credible, reliable and valid test items. 

Mrs. Ojumah said each of the participants would generate fifty objective questions drawn from each subject curriculum, adding that the subject team leaders would vet and make corrections on the work of the subject specialists under them and submit to the Examination department of the Ministry.

She encouraged the resource persons at the workshop to be explicit in delivering their lectures to enable participants comprehend the contents of their presentations.

The resource persons, Dr. Godwin Edozie and Ven. Dr. Diakeleho -Edjere Oghomena, who represented Professor Osadebe from Delta State University, Abraka made presentations on new subject thematic area and guidelines on generation of test items.