The Readiness of ESL Teachers in Implementation of School-Based Assessment in Malaysian Secondary Schools

Education in Malaysia has moved its way forward to the new development of teaching, assessment and learning. This is aligned to the hope of the Ministry of Education (MOE) as to produce more competitive learners and at the same time to upgrade the quality of education in Malaysia. At present, education in Malaysia is more summative assessment whereby it focuses more on summative examinations instead of holistic assessment. School-based assessment (SBA) is a new transformational movement in education in Malaysia which focuses on the teacher’s assessment of students’ learning for better improvement. Hence, teachers’ readiness in teaching is very crucial to ensure the effectiveness of the implementation of SBA. A descriptive research design was used in this study involving ninety (90) teachers from fourteen schools in two states of Malaysia. Among the major objectives of this study are to describe the teachers’ levels of knowledge in the implementation of SBA and to identify the teachers’ best practices in the implementation of SBA. The results reveal that the respondents have adequate knowledge about SBA and are aware of the best practices in the implementation of SBA.