Practices and challenges of alternative assessments at government primary schools in Bangladesh: teachers’ perceptions

Abstract

Bangladesh's existing summative assessment system, especially in primary education, does not support the students' holistic development. To overcome this barrier, the concept of alternative assessment came into place. However, teachers' perceptions are essential before any reform in education as they will be implementing that in the classroom. Therefore, this study intended to determine the perceptions of the government primary schools' teachers regarding the practices and challenges of alternative assessment. I chose the qualitative research method with purposive sampling for this study. I collected data from 18 teachers of 6 different schools in Dhaka city through individual phone interviews, focus group discussions, lesson planning, and student copies. The data showed that though the teachers are aware of the significance of alternative assessment, they do not have enough knowledge and face numerous challenges while implementing it. The reasons they mentioned are lack of teachers, teacher-student ratio, class duration, workload, parents' pressure for taking summative assessments, and lack of training. Thus, the study proposes for the life-long learning orientation of the teachers along with proper monitoring and evaluation of those learning, besides providing the teachers with adequate support and resources so that they can implement the alternative assessments in their classrooms.