THE IMPACT OF GLOBAL WARMING

Earth is the only planet in the solar system where man has found survival since then man has been ‘eating’ earth. The planet is surrounded by an atmosphere and covered by a large expanse of water also called the hydrosphere which is estimated to be 70% of the surface of earth. It so happens that the planet is just in the right distance and position to receive appropriate light from and warmth from the sun for animals to see and for the plants to make their own food by the process of photosynthesis, Simply put the earth has a ‘life jacket’ or the power house for the sustenance of the biosphere. The ecologists view the sun to be the source of all our energies on the planet. Consequently the earth has been sustaining the biosphere as long as history can remember; however the natural conditions on this planet have been threatened by anthropogenic activities some scholars call global warming.

In this presentation the writer seeks to show the impact of global warming on this planet. Before going any further it is important to define the key words which are ‘impact’ and ‘global warming’. According to Soanes and Stevenson (2003) (11ed) impact means marked effect or influence. In other words it means the effect caused by an act of something. It can also mean influence or results due to a certain condition. Global warming is a combination of two words that is ‘globe’ to mean ‘earth’ and ‘warming’ to mean a ‘rise in temperature’. When these two words are combined they form ‘global warming’. Global warming is the increase in global temperature resulting from human activities that exacerbate the so-called natural ‘greenhouse effect.

Global warming is a more specific term referring to increases in the earth’s average temperature hence green gasses build up in the atmosphere causing climate change in various ecosystems. In turn this causes long term weather patterns either by increasing or reducing their intensity. www.sharpsolaracademy.com it can also be said that global warming is increased warmth on earth caused by a thick blanket of gasses(green house gasses) as a result of global warming which further causes changes in climate per region. Global warming is a gradual increase in the earth’s surface temperature. It is believed to result partly from a build-up of heat-trapping greenhouse gases (such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide) emitted by human activities including fossil fuel burning and land clearing

Man has been struggling in order to shape his ecosystem in a manner he wants since the first day he set foot on this planet. The effects of global warming are the environmental and social changes caused (directly or indirectly) by human emissions of greenhouse gases. There is a scientific consensus that climate change caused by global warming is occurring, and that human activities are the primary driver hence they are anthropogenic. Many impacts of climate change have already been observed, including melting of glaciers, changes in the timing of seasonal events. Global warming will not only be felt many decades from now, it is already happening and its impacts are clearly visible. These include increases in extreme weather events, rising sea level, disappearing glaciers and polar ice, damaged coral, changes in wildlife distributions and many more.

Although a direct link to global warming is difficult to establish for some of these phenomena in isolation, the multitude of changes collectively provide clear evidence of the immediate and growing danger that global warming pose to the economy, human health, and the ecosystems upon which humans and other species depend. Since greenhouse gas pollution stays in the atmosphere for decades or centuries, humanity may have no more than a decade left to begin stabilizing the climate to avert devastating and irreversible impacts. Such an achievement will require a concerted effort among all nations. Sea-level rise is one of the most certain impacts of global warming.

During the 20th century, sea levels around the world raised by an average of 4 to 8 inches. That rise is projected to accelerate further, with possible catastrophic increases of many meters. The Shrinkage of glaciers is already creating water shortages, and threatening tourism in scenic parks. Mt. Kilimanjaro peak ice has been disappearing since1912, with about one-third melting in just the last dozen years. In Asia, glaciers are retreating in the Indian Himalaya, and two glaciers in New Guinea will be gone in a decade. Over time, this could cause disruptive ecological and economic changes. Many species, including the golden toad and most of the 70-odd species of harlequin frogs have vanished or declined in population because of diseases that have spurred due to climatic changes that have been induced by global warming.

Disease outbreaks are on rampage due higher temperatures that are accelerating the maturation of disease-causing agents. Global Warming has also been linked to the recent spread of tropical diseases including malaria, dengue fever and yellow fever, into high-altitude areas such as in Colombia, Mexico, and Rwanda that had never seen the diseases before. In other areas such as those of Bangladesh sea levels are rising due to severe flooding coupled with melting of ice caps in permafrost areas. While this is so for Bangladeshi sea cost, the river Rhine is threatened with drying forcing bigger ships to carry less cargo.

Glaciers are slow-moving “rivers” of ice formed over many years from compacted snow on sloping land. In almost every mountainous region across the world, long-term monitoring has revealed that the vast majority of glaciers are retreating up slope in response to cold regions around the world; large reaches of land have been frozen year-round. That permafrost is now melting rapidly in places like the Arctic of North America, Siberia, and the Himalayan/Tibetan region of Asia. Higher night time temperatures are strongly correlated with the spike in malaria cases, argues Balbus et al (1996). The spread of the disease to higher altitudes has also been facilitated by heavy rainfall, which creates more pools of water in which mosquitoes breed.

Due to increased flooding in certain regions mosquitoes breed causing severe malaria. Night time and winter temperatures are increasing faster than daytime and summer temperatures in many regions of the world, Folland et al (2001). This decrease in the occurrence of cold weather means that areas at high latitudes or altitudes that were previously unsuitable for the transmission of tropical diseases may become suitable due to global warming. This has, apparently, already started to happen. In the South American country of Colombia, the mosquitoes that carry dengue fever and yellow fever viruses were previously limited to altitudes below 3,300 ft, but have been recently found at 7,200 ft. To the north in Mexico, dengue fever has spread above its former limit of 1,000 m and now appearing at 1,700 m.

Climate change will impact agriculture and food production around the world due to: the effects of elevated CO2 in the atmosphere, higher temperatures, altered precipitation and transpiration regimes, increased frequency of extreme events, and modified weed, pest, and pathogen pressure In general, low-latitude areas are at most risk of having decreased crop yields Night time and winter temperatures are increasing faster than daytime and summer temperatures in many regions of the world.

This decrease in the occurrence of cold weather means that areas at high latitudes or altitudes that were previously unsuitable for the transmission of tropical diseases may become suitable due to global warming. Phonological studies provide important evidence of the response to recent regional climate change. Penology is the study of natural phenomena that recur periodically, and how these phenomena relate to climate and seasonal changes. A significant advance in phenology has been observed for agriculture and forestry in large parts of the Northern Hemisphere.

Although flooding events are very likely to increase with global warming, droughts are also expected to be more frequent and severe in other places. Higher temperatures tend to increase the rate of evaporation and if precipitation doesn’t soon replenish the lost moisture, soils grow drier. In drier soils, less solar energy is used up in evaporating water, meaning more energy is available to raise the temperature of the soil. Warmer ocean temperatures due to global warming may also increase the severity of droughts, Hoerling and Kumar (2003). Ocean and the western Pacific were exceptionally warm between 1998 and 2002 in part because of the overall warming trend in the world’s oceans. In the same period, unusually persistent atmospheric flow patterns resulted in below normal precipitation.

Some climate simulations have indicated that further insect pests are spreading to forests previously too cold for their survival; Alaska, for instance, had in the 1990s the world’s largest recorded outbreak of spruce bark beetles. Today many developing countries are under considerable threat from changes in the global climate, characterized by an increased severity and frequency of droughts and floods, which have forced people to leave their homes.

Between 1997 and 2005, for example Tanzania experienced drought as a result of climate change and the Metera dam reached its lowest water level, resulting in a 17 percent drop in hydro generation. Tanzania announced a major power load-shedding that adversely affected industrial and commercial sectors. In Uganda, thermal generation was introduced to meet the shortfall. Karekezi and Kithyome (2005). Several recent reports have highlighted the potential for climate change to cause increased migration, Black (2001). An estimated one billion people worldwide could be forced from their homes by 2050 with 250 million of them permanently displaced by the effects of climate change. Increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide pose a more direct danger to corals as well.

When carbon dioxide gas dissolves in seawater, it changes ocean chemistry, making it more difficult for corals to produce calcium carbonate, the main building material in their skeletons. Such a change in seawater chemistry has in fact been observed Therefore, as hazards and disruptions associated with climate change grow in this century, so too may be the likelihood of related population displacements, Hugo (1996). Mass movements of people are projected hence affecting the ecosystems of many species. Climatic climate change is expected to have considerable impacts on natural resource systems and changes in the natural environment, sustenance and livelihoods. These in turn can lead to instability and conflict, often followed by displacements of people and changes in migration patterns.

In a nutshell global warming has wide-ranging effects that are very devastating on many aspects of human life and other forms of life in the biosphere. It threatens economies, lives and traditional ways of life. Some of these results of climate change are so catastrophic that thousands of lives of people, infrastructure and livestock have been lost to floods and landslides in regions such as the subcontinent of India or Bangladesh and others. The sinking of coastal land, rising of seawater levels, the drying up of major lakes and degradation of wildlife habitat, the floods, the droughts, the diseases, the rising temperatures and all the changes in rainfall patterns are all as result of climate change caused by global warming. The changing of rainfall patterns is also attributed to climatic change.

REFERENCES

Black Richard (2001) Environmental Refugees: Myth or Reality? In New Issues in Refugee Research. Geneva: United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees. Working Paper No. 34: 1-19

Folland, C.K.,T.R. Karl, J.R. Christy, R.A. Clarke, G.V. Gruza, J. Jouzel, M.E. Mann, J.Oerlemans, M.J. Salinger, and S.W. Wang (2001) Observed Climate Variability and Change. In: Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Third Assessment Report of the IPCC.

Karekezi and Kityoma (eds.) (2005) Sustainable Energyin Africa: Cogeneration and Geothermal in the East and Horn of Africa – Status and prospects. Nairobi, Kenya.

Hoerling, M and Kumar A(2003) the perfect ocean for drought science 299:691-694

Hugo, G. (1996). “Environmental Concerns and Migration,” International Migration Review . Vol. 30, No. 1: 105-13.

Balbus J.M, Patz J.A, P.R. Epstein, and T.A. Burke, (1996) Global climate change and emerging infectious diseases. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 275, 217–223.

Soanes Catherine and Stevenson Angus (2003) Oxford Dictionary of English, London: Oxford University Press.

Wieczorek, G.F., M.C. Larsen, L.S. Eaton, B.A. Morgan, and J.L. Blair, (2001) Debris-flow and flooding hazards associated with the December 1999 storm in coastal Venezuela and strategies for mitigation. USGS Open-File Report 01-0144. http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2001/ofr-01-0144/ retrieved on 17/12/14 @ 22:30

THE SCHOOL AS AN ORGANIZATION

Organization theory is the body of thinking and writing which addresses itself to the problem of how to organize. It encompasses the study of the structure, functioning and performance of organizations and the behaviour of groups and individuals within them. It is worth noting that organizations thrive to adapt continuously to external conditions as well emphasize on internal hierarchical decisions for change. Hence, organizations persistently tend to balance the learning process between equilibrium and evolution. The goal in this paper is to engage in these topics for a theoretical discourse and to describe several issues related to the behavioral aspects of educational organization and hence, understand the employee-management behavior cycle in terms of organizational evolution.

This article is structured into three centralized sections followed by a conclusion. In the first section, we provide a background review of settings to be based on informative analysis to understand why and how school is looked at as an organisation. In continuum under this section, we foresee the school organisation structure with a deeper understanding that underlies hierarchy arrangement of managing a school system. Following this, we underline the description of behavioral aspect of education organisation. During this discourse, we try to delineate how organisation can associate and extract meaningful representational formation from the motivation theory at work place. In significance, we provide a short description of our communication to narrate all the findings followed by a concluding remark.

A school being a place where formal education takes place, it can be said to be an organisation. This means that as a social system comprising of group of people that interact together to achieve both school and individual goals. In this regard, a school must be a safe and organized place where clear set of general rules and school discipline are in order. The school must be supportive where learners and teachers can focus on learning and teaching respectively. For example, teachers must have a staff room where they can prepare their work before a lesson and pupils must have good chairs and desks for setting and writing.

The school is one of the most important institutions that human beings have brought. School involves cooperation, participation, involvement and delegation of activities. However, the larger the institution the more formal it is or the more hierarchical it becomes. A hierarchy exemplifies an arrangement with a leader who leads other individual members of the organization (Peter, 1969). This arrangement is often associated with bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is a chain of administration in an organisation with well defined line of authority that ensures order and facilitates a chain of command (Max Weber, 1947). In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence. A good school looks like a pyramid as illustrated below and has also departments, committees and subcommittees.

Head Teacher

Deputy Head

Departmental Heads

Teachers

Pupil/Student

Source: Scott, (2008)

Peter (1969) adds that, structures are formed on the basis that there are enough people under the leader to give him support. He further illustrated that, this form of structure can be seen in a real pyramid. But, if there are no enough stone blocks to hold up the higher ones, gravity would irrevocably bring down the monumental structure. So, if the leader in the school organisation does not have the support of his subordinates, the entire structure can collapse. Scott (2008) highlights that structure of the schools can be divided into internal and external. The internal includes class grouping, subject grouping, departments, committees, working parties, timetables and room allocation. On the other hand, the external comprises of number of pupils in class, budget, age limit, appraisals, governing body such as boards, Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and salary scales, fringe benefits and incentives.

POSITIVE AND RESPECTFUL OUTCOME

Establishing behavioral expectations for students, staff, and visitors that encourage a positive and respectful outcome, culture and school climate are essential to creating and maintaining a safe and supportive school community.

Culture organisation

Organisation culture emphasizes the culture of organisation itself. This approach presumes that organisation can be characterized by culture such as beliefs, values, rituals, symbols and so forth. Within this approach generally consist of either developing models for understanding organisation culture or developing typologies of organizational culture. Edgar Schein developed a model for understanding culture and identified three levels of organisation culture: Artifacts and behavior; Espoused values and Shared based assumption.

Schein argued that if any of these levels were divergent tensions would result: if, for example, espoused value or desired behavior were not consistent with the basic assumption of an organisation it is likely that these values or behavior would be rejected. Typologies of organizational culture identified specific organizational culture and related these to performance or effectiveness of an organisation.

School climate

According to Elias (1979), school climate is a stable set of organizational characteristics that capture the distinctive tone or atmosphere of a school. School climate may be defined as the quality and character of school life. This therefore, should be based on patterns of student, parent, and school personnel experiences within the school and reflects norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching and learning practices, and organizational structures.

Additionally, Feldman (2000) emphasizes that the school must embrace open climate which promotes interaction among all the factors in the school. Openness of the school climate has been primarily to the expressive characteristics in schools For instance, the more open climate, the more committed, and loyal and satisfied the teachers are. Furthermore, the open the climate the school, the less alienated student tend to be. This implies that openness of the school climate will discourage unfriendly or unsympathetic behavior towards students. As a result, students actively participate in the learning process. A school with open, health and collegial professional interactions and strong academic ethics empowers teachers (Cayla, 2008). Meaning, teachers can organize and execute their teaching in ways that are successful in helping to learn, and when the school climate support them, teachers plan more, accept responsibility for the student performance and are not deterred by temporary setbacks to enhance student learning.

A part from that, positive student, teacher and head interrelationship characterize a health school climate. This enables many teachers always to like their colleagues, their schools, their jobs and their students. They are always driven by a quest for academic excellence. The empirical evidence has liked school climate with achievement. Organizational climate makes teachers to believe in themselves and their students, and set high achievable goals. It also makes the school heads behaviour to be positive, such that he or she is always friendly, open minded and supportive. The end result of all these efforts is that students in the school perform quite well in their work and this relates to positive school effectiveness.

To gain an overall understanding of the depth and breadth of this subject matter which is educational organization, it may require going beyond the established routes of entangling the comparative aspects of motivation theories and behavioral aspects in a school as an organization

It has been established that some form of motivations are needed at work place for employees or management from time immemorial (Lorenz 1950) which has undergone little alterations on the behavior of employees. For example, the Maslow`s hierarchy of needs.

Organizational behavior (OB) is a term related to the study of individual and group dynamics in an organizational setting, as well as the nature of the organizations themselves. Whenever people interact in organizations, many factors come into play. The subject of Organizational Studies attempts to understand and model these factors. This subject is becoming more important as people with diverse backgrounds and cultural values have to work together effectively and efficiently. OB seeks to emphasize them understanding of behavior in organizations so as to develop competencies in foreseeing how people are likely to behave. This knowledge may then help in controlling those behaviors that are not befitting the objectives of the organizations

REFERENCES

Elias, M., Zins, J., Weissberg, P., Frey, K., Haynes, N., Kessler, R.Schwabstone, M., Shriver, T., (1997) Learning:Guidelines for Educators. Alexandria.
Scott, William Richard (2008). Institutions and Organizations (3rd Ed.)London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Reddin, W.J. (1971). Managerial effectiveness. New York: McGraw-Hill
Elias, M., Zins, (1979) The U.S. Department of Education Office of Safe and Healthy Students (http://safesupportiveschools.ed.gov)
Bateson, P.P.G. 1976. Specificity and the origins of behavior. Advances in the Study of Behavior,
vol. 6. 1-20.
Cayla, David. 2008 Organizational Learning: A process between equilibrium and evolution. Journal of Economics Issues 42, 2, 553-560.
Feldman, Martha, S. (2000): “Organizational Routines as a Source of Continuous Change.”Organization Science 11, 6, 611-629.

THE MEANING OF DEVELOPMENT AND THE ROLE OF THE STATE IN SUPPORTING DEVELOPMENT

The world we live in is not a static world. It is dynamic and has constantly undergone some changes. Simply put, we live in a changing society. Every nation has held elections so as to find a better government that can bring development to its citizens because where there is no change there can’t be development. Since development cannot just come on its own, the state has to play a role hence this discussion will state what development is and describe the role of the state in supporting development.
Development is an extension of the theoretical or practical aspects of a concept, design, discovery, or invention. The process of economic and social transformation that is based on complex cultural and environmental factors and their interactions. The process of adding improvements to a piece of land, such as grading, subdivisions, drainage, access, roads, utilities. It is also the process of economic and social transformation that is based on complex cultural and environmental factors and their interactions. www.businessdictionary.com/defintions.
Development is a complex issue, with many different and sometimes contentious definitions which may dwell on social, economic, or political development. Development is about improving the wellbeing of being of people, improving their education, health and opening to their new opportunities for richer and varied life. A basic perspective equates development with economic growth. The United Nations Development Programme uses a more detailed definition- according to them development is 'to lead long and healthy lives, to be knowledgeable, to have access to the resources needed for a decent standard of living and to be able to participate in the life of the community. Development does not mean building skyscrapers and payment of heft salaries for the civil service but it’s about the economical, social, environmental and political aspects of a nation or region. Furthermore the development should be sustainable even for the future generations to come and not just for the present to enjoy. Development refers to the act of improving the quality of life and making sure everyone has the preference in what life has to offer. These choices are widened through the combined effort of local people, international bodies, governments and a variety of civil society organisations such as non-governmental organizations and religious groups.
The role of the state in development has become one of the most hotly contested policy issues of the post-colonial era Africa in general and Southern Africa in particular. According to Matinussen (1997:257) ‘the debate concerning the role the state should play in development policy and what strategies bear most credence has been incessantly charged since the end of 1940s’. Although the controversy around which agency is more central in driving the development process between state and markets still a matter of debate, in a way some states favor communist ideologies while others favor capitalist ideologies. It is evident that since the 1980s through to the 1990s, dominant foreign actors, especially the Bretton Woods institutions have imposed their policies over the nationalist political elite, dictating Africa’s development path making it difficult for states to choose means of supporting development. This has had dire consequences for both political sovereignty and autonomous economic initiatives. No other country in the Southern African region provides such a vivid example of this contradiction between imperialist hegemony and national sovereignty as Zimbabwe does today, Matlosa (2002).
The problem with African countries is that they inherited economies that are backward, skewed and underdeveloped as a result of Western colonial rule. So since independence, African states have embarked on the transformation of inherited economic structures with varying degrees of success. The debate about the role of the state in development in Africa reached its peak in the 1970s. Therefore the state needs to create an entrepreneurship friendly environment and infant industry promotion amongst other means. The state is not to rely on more market forces for it to have development. Without government intervention states would be caught in a vicious circle of poverty, Baur (1984). However neoliberal policy recommendations aim at dealing with state failure through structural adjustment programs. The recommendations focus on fiscal, austerity, privatization, trends, liberalization and deregulation to increase the freedom of action for private entrepreneurs’, Rapley (2007). In this way the state supports development. The logic behind is rises from the fact that government spending fosters high inflation. More over the state owned enterprises are less efficient than the private sector. When government fails to allocate resources for its departments it borrows funds from the co-operating partners. But usually with strings attached. According to (IMF) international Monetary Fund a country that borrows agrees to adjust its economic policies to overcome the problems that led to it to seek financial aid from the international community, International Monetary Fund (2011).
The state needs to support development by protecting its local industries through various policies. For example Henry VIII aimed to support the domestic processing of wool which accounted for roughly half of the English industry in that time through taxing exports of raw wool, Chang (2002). As can be seen from the above example there was promotion of infant industry. Back here in Zambia the government of Zambia has been supporting small scale farmers through many programs such as the rural note book program on radio among others. The cash transfer schemes is one such programs where there is government support. The state needs to formulate or introduce policies that promote its manufacturing industry. For example reduced tariffs a developmental state has the capability for sustained economic growth (i.e. high gross domestic product (GDP)), and development (i.e. welfare services to the mass of the population), qualities that Mauritius and Botswana have.
The Southern Africa region is still confronted with enormous development challenges, which have not been resolved since the early 1980s. The Lagos Plan of Action, the UNECA proposals for an alternative development agenda and the structural adjustment in the late 1980s have not achieved the intended results, as the continent has nothing to show for all these efforts in terms of economic progress and regional integration. These have and are, arguably, development projects driven primarily by the nationalist political elite aimed at charting some autonomous development vision and destiny for the continent, Ake (1996).

However, part of the failure of the nationalist and state-driven development models was the resistance from the donor community and disapproval of such by the Bretton Woods institutions who jointly devised alternative development strategies such as the early 1980s Berg Report, through the late 1980s reports up to the current World Bank report on “Can Africa Claim the 21st Century”. In these competing development agendas, there is no doubt that the nationalist agenda has lost to Bretton Woods and the Washington consensus, Ake (1996), Kidane and Logan (1995).
Many African states relied heavily on expatriates, who subsequently produced development plans whose policies, programs and targets took for granted the inherited economic structure of their respective countries. In Southern Africa, most post-colonial states depended on expatriates for the formulation of national development plans that usually ran from five to fifteen years. At the same time, donors financially supported these development plans. In Zambia, the ratio of expatriates (mostly macro-economists) to national experts at the National Commission for Development planning in 1975 was 21 to 4, Ake (1996). The above explains why economic nationalism remained heavily at the center of development in the continent. Although they allowed foreign resources to complement their own mission and effort, nationalists remained focused and central to the development process in the continent.gai at the cost of community or widespread communities.
Last but not the least, the role of the state in development has been an issue of heated debate at theoretical and policy arenas in the Southern African region especially since the attainment of independence in the 1960s. Two main alternative or contrasting development agendas that have driven the debate were those of the nationalist political elite on one hand and those of foreign capital on the other. The former espoused what in ideological and policy terms could be described as economic nationalism. The latter espoused what could be described as economic markets. State intervention, as a key policy thrust of a development process is much stronger in respect of economic nationalism, which in itself is an expression of the political commitment of African states to chart an autonomous development path.

REFERENCES

Ake. C (1996) Democracy and Development in Africa. Washington D.C, The Brookings Institution.
Baur John (984) music through literature. Vol: 1.
Chang H. J (2002) kicking away the ladder. London, Anthem Press.
International Monetary Fund (2011) International MonetoryFund Conditionalities.
Accessed on 14/04/14 @ 10:39 from www.imf.org/external/np/ex/facts/conditionshtm.
Kidane Mengisteab and Logan B. Ikubolajeh (1995) Southern African Political EconomicSeries. Cape Town, NJ Publishers.
Matlosa Kabhele (2005) Rethinking African development: a paper presented at the conference. Maputo.
Rapley. J (2007) (3rdeds) understanding development: theory and practice in the third world. New York, Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Todaro M. P (1992) Economics for a developing World. London, Longman limited.

THE REASON FOR TESTING IN SCHOOLS

Testing focuses on learning, teaching and outcomes to provide information woven into the structure of educational practice. It informs the school how well their pupils are learning what teachers are teaching. The information is used by the school to make changes in the learning environment, and is shared with pupils to assist them in improving their learning and study habits. Students’ test performances, individually and collectively, give teachers feedback on the effectiveness of their instruction, guiding lesson planning, instructional pacing, and the organization of individualized or small-group instruction. Low-stakes “formative” assessments assist both students and teachers with ongoing monitoring of student learning, enabling timely intervention when understanding falters. In view of this, we are prompted to write a report based on things teachers’ test, the kind of test, the use they make of the results and problems experienced in testing.
Testing as, “a method of evaluating personality in which an individual, living in a group under partly controlled physical and social conditions, meets and solves a variety of lifelike problems…and is observed and rated.” In testing, learners must be given many opportunities to show the teacher what they know and what they can do. Muzumara (2007:103) is of the view that “testing helps teachers to know their progress, pupils’ strengths and weaknesses, their ability level and how best they need to be taught.” It is a classroom research to provide the improvement of teaching and learning. It about the pupil’s learning and understanding for the purposes of grading and reporting. It is the observation of students in the process of learning, the collection of frequent feedback on pupils’ learning, and the design of modest classroom experiments that provide information on how pupils learn and how they respond to particular teaching approaches. It helps individual teacher obtain useful feedback on what, how much, and how well their pupils are learning.
Pupils are also tested in co-curricular activities. These help in predicting the future needs of pupils. Gawe and Vakalisa (2000:282) state that “the awareness of learners’ progress is not confined to one to two tests.” It involves many activities as it mentioned above. This is very important because it gives them a wider ranger to be graded. When a pupil is not doing well in one area he or she can gain the other grades in the other area.
Testing may focus on grades classroom components other than course content and mastery level. These include discussion to test verbal ability. Individual tests help determine the classifications of students as gifted or learning disabled. The quizzes, unit tests, and final exams that teachers create help determine the pacing of classroom instruction, instructional grouping, and marks and grades, as well as informing students about expectations for learning and about their success in meeting those expectations. The relevant points here are that students are supposed to work at learning “earning” grades, and tests are supposed to reveal what they have accomplished. Tests are fair because they are objective and each student answers the same questions under the same conditions, alone and unaided. These achievement tests motivate and reward effort by providing students with opportunities to demonstrate their learning achievements.
Teachers use graded tests for which the aim is to provide the school with information on what, how much, and how well pupils are learning. Payne (1997:474) contends assessment as “the systematic evaluative appraisal of an individual’s ability and performance in a particular environment or context. Content-specific needs to respond to the particular needs and characteristics of the teachers, pupils, and disciplines to which they are applied. It means of what works in one class will not necessarily work in another.
It determines the degree of achievement of major outcomes of pupils’ course of study. It is concerned with the assignment of final marks or grades. We also recorded verbal tests which are the ones in which language plays a major part. Pupils’ ability to speak and read determines effectiveness on this kind of test. Non-verbal test indicates the pupils’ speed of manipulation, accuracy of movement and sharpness of perception. The use of language is minimized but not eliminated.
On performance test, the pupil is asked to perform an act, much as he or she would in a real-life or repeat a series of digits given to him or her orally. A group test is one of rating scales. It is one which a number of pupils must take simultaneously. On the other hand, an individual test is one which requires one examiner for each examines. The test may be classed according to their purposes.
Aptitude tests are designed to indicate the pupils’ capacity to learn. The most common are intelligence tests. Tests of reading-readiness are common. When it comes to achievement tests, there is an indication of the pupils’ level of performance in specific academics areas such as reading, spelling, mathematics, language usage, comprehension etc. Mehan (2008, p. 46) nicely summarizes the traditional argument for achievement tests as a basis for grading, promotion, and college admissions: “Pupils are placed in environments where they can achieve through their effort and hard work.” Pupils have the opportunity to compete with peers and are judged on the basis of their individual performance. The meritocratic thesis defines educational success as a matter of individual effort and hard work.

Policy makers seize upon performance assessments as a way to encourage higher-order thinking and problem solving in the classroom. The hope is to harness the power of measurement-driven instruction for good with tests that they would want teachers to teach. On the other hand, Tests are intended to monitor and enforce adherence to a prescribed curriculum.
Schools also use results to refocus their teaching to help pupils make their learning more efficient and more effective. The purpose is to focus the primary attention of teachers and pupils on observing and improving pupil learning rather than on observing and improving teaching. Standardized tests inform people about the effectiveness of the public schools they are supporting. Test-score based accountability is creating a rationale for rejecting two thirds of our students as unworthy of higher education. During the course pupils are assessed in order to see if they can be moved to the next educational stage. The scores on these tests are used by schools to make decisions about kids--to retain students, as screening devices for middle school and high school entrance, for entry into gifted or accelerated programs, and to decide which kids need remediation. They are part of a great sort and select machine within school systems.
Using same tests for all pupils, those in well-funded posh schools along with students trying to learn in under-funded, ill-equipped schools is grossly unfair, and the outcome is quite predictable. Since pupils do not receive equal educations, holding identical expectations for all pupils places the poorer ones at a disadvantage. Data confirm that females, poor pupils and those with disabilities are disproportionately failing high tests. School districts with the greatest numbers of poor children fail test, even after taking it for a second time. Even moderate income differences could result in major test score differences.
There are, of course, competing accounts of the ways testing functions in our educational system. The fairness and objectivity of educational tests become less clear when differences in educational opportunity are considered. If educational success is determined by factors other than individual aptitude and effort, then sorting and selecting based on test performance may be regarded as quite unfair. In short, achievement reflects both individual effort and educational opportunity. Educational opportunity, in turn, comprises both within-school and out-of-school factors. Within-school factors, including access to highly qualified teachers and other resources, are unequally distributed. Out-of-school factors, including home and community resources, are also unequal. The simplified logic of a meritocracy in which students compete on an equal basis ignores both in-school and out-of-school differences in opportunity to learn.
In addition, tests that students must complete alone and unaided, in competition with others, perform well with a view of knowledge as an individual possession, carried inside the heads of learners. Adherence to that view may create a gap between conceptions of mathematics or science in the classroom versus the contexts of professional practice. Along with the view of knowledge as an individual possession, our accustomed testing practices fit comfortably with a knowledge transmission model of schooling, in which the teacher and textbook are sources of knowledge and students are its (more or less passive) recipients. That said, conventional modes of assessment by no means rule out students’ active engagement with the subject matter.
The Taxonomy of Educational Objectives drew attention to the tendency for item writers to focus on low-level skills rather than “higher-order thinking. The emphasis on objectivity leads to tests posing well-structured problems with a single right answer of a pre-determined form. In this view, schooling should equip students to approach new problems and figure out what they would need to learn in order to solve them. This is a sophisticated version of “learning to learn” as a goal of schooling.
In conclusion, Tests are central in education sector. They provide a feedback to what is taught and it helps into the sorting and selecting process at the point of college admissions. High school exit examinations are viewed as a form of quality assurance, but also stand as significant barriers to completion for substantial numbers of pupils. Government testing systems define school-level success or failure, and a range of sanctions are imposed if scores fall short of targeted levels. We have also looked at the impact of tests and have noted that using same tests for all pupils is grossly unfair because pupils do not receive equal educations.

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