Assessment of Achievement in Grade 8 Students in the Sinhala Language

Abstract

The study was to assess the achievement of grade 8 students in the Sinhala Language in Sri Lanka. Language skill is a vital factor influencing the achievement of students. To achieve the goals in Education the National Education Research and Evaluation Centre (NEREC) of the Faculty of Education, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka has been conducting National Assessments since 2003 in with collaboration the Ministry of Education financed by the World Bank. This study was funded by the NEREC. The main objective of the study was to determine the achievement of learning outcomes of students completing grade 8 in the year 2021in the Sinhala Language. Thus, the test was administered in the May of 2022. Construct and validate test items to assess the achievement in expected learning outcomes in the Sinhala language of grade 8 students, Find out patterns in the achievement of grade 8 students according to their gender and school type and Find out areas of strengths and weaknesses in the achievement of grade 8 students in line with the Essential Learning Competencies (ELCs). Three parallel tests were administered and the final test was validated according to item response theory. The sample was selected using the stratified random sampling technique. It was revealed that the male performance (51.52) is lower than the female performance (57.73). And also achievement level of the male is lower than the overall mean score, while female achievement is above the overall mean value. The mean value of the students in 1AB schools is the highest. The lowest performance can be seen from the students in type 2 schools.