Abstract:
Kenya strives to
achieve Education for All (EFA) in order to contribute to various developmental endeavour
Like any country
she has national goals of education that reflect the prevailing
needs for which the offered education
should aim at addressingThrough e
valuationa nation isinformedon the performance of the education system and
its output
s. Given this critical role the evaluation system should be accurate, credible, and realistic in providing data
to advise the stakeholders on the quality, efficiency, effectiven
ess, competency and reliability of both
the system and
products
.Kenyan education has
since colonial period relied on summative evaluation as the standard
measure for judging an awarding
grades and certificates to its products. Bearing in mind that Kenyan society attaches a lot of
value to grades and certificates the
two are determining factorsfor quality products
. They predetermine
the academic and profession destinyof the
products. Notwithstanding th
is approach the summative evaluation system in
Kenya has high potential ofanomalies regarded as examinationirregularities. Due to this
many stakeholders are left wondering and questioning how much
confidence should continueto be entrustedin the system. Many
questionsarise such as what could be the alternative
strategiesfor gauging the product’sperformance
in the event of lack of confidence in the summative evaluation
?Whichbest approaches can gauge
learning achievements in a schooling
system? The paper hopes to address the two questions by
conceptualizingthe meaning of Education and evaluation, analysing its
function, criterion
,and standards upon which evaluation isjudged
