Perceptions of Zimbabwe's Secondary School Teachers Towards Norm-Referenced Assessment in the Context of Inclusion

At the end of the ‘O’ Level curriculum, all students sit for a common examination regardless of their different academic abilities. The examination is a norm referenced test intended for selection purposes. The education assessment system is still meritocratic. After publication of results, schools are ranked in order of performance. Schools that will have performed below expectations are requested to account. Powers that be in the education system seem not to be interested in what students can do, but how they perform in the final school leaving examinations. As a result, chances are that teaching becomes examination oriented, with teachers employing unorthodox teaching methods such as drilling to achieve good results in the final examinations. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of secondary school teachers towards the assessment system in use vis-à-vis inclusion.