Impact of Continuous Assessment On Students Academic Performance in Selected Public Secondary Schools in Mbale Municipality

ABSTRACT This study was about establishing the impact of continuous assessment on students’ academic performance in UCE in Mbale municipality. The study objectives included; establishing the effect of homework on students’ academic performance in UCE, examining the effect of monthly tests on students’ academic performance in UCE and establishing the effect of class exercise on students’ academic performance in UCE. The study sampled 1 80 respondents out of a study population of 123 respondents according to Morgan (1970) formula of determining the sample size of the respondents. The study respondents included; school administrators, teachers students and parents The study discovered that homework affects students’ academic performance in the following ways; home work helps students to identi~’ their weaknesses and strength, helps in monitoring students learning and progress, home work helps teachers to gauge student’s mastery of the required knowledge, helps teachers to determine whether students are prepared for tests and examinations and motivating and shaping learning and instructions. As regards the effect of monthly tests on students’ academic performance in UCE, it was found out that monthly tests enables complete understanding of concepts, determines the memory and reasoning capacity of students, helps teachers to determine the gaps in students understanding of concepts, encourages students to attend classes and students retain the materials for a long period of time or make them ready for exams. It was found out that class exercise affects students academic performance in the following ways; encourage student to work hard and prepare for examination, class room exercises encourage students to research, class room exercises encourage students to independently, critically and creatively think about what they have studied, minimizes failure amongst students during examinations, and encourages students to form discussion groups for easy understanding of concept. The recommendations teachers in schools need to ensure close monitoring of students performance by ensuring continuous assessment of students through monthly and weekly tests. There is need to encourage students to make use of discussion groups and intensive consultations of teachers in areas they fill there are not well versed with. This can help to improve on their performance in their examination. Guidance and Counseling is of paramount importance in the area of academic performance of students, therefore teachers need to take a step to guide students to intensive read their books to improve their performance.