On Monday,16th February 2015 a session on Assessment for Learning was held at GIS in collaboration with the Ministry of Education (MOE). The session was attended by the Primary teachers of all the schools of Male’ City. This session attended by more than 350 teachers was introduced by the State Minister of MOE, Mr. Adam Shareef.

During his introduction he emphasised on the importance of changing our perception on using comprehensive methods of assessing student learning. He also thanked our Principal Mr. Thoha Saleem for accepting the collaboration and organising such a session for the teachers of government schools.

After the State Minister’s address, our Principal also addressed the teachers, briefly talking about the reasons of implementing Formative Assessment in the primary grades. He also shared his experience from his visit to Finland which is believed to have the best Education System. In Finland, Assessment for Learning is employed across the grades 1 - 9 and during our Principal’s visit he had experienced the progress seen in student performance when teachers adopt this method of assessment.

GIS organised this session to share the experience of Formative Assessment through a presentation by the Deputy Principal Ms. Shirmeena Faheem followed by some interactions from some of the Primary teachers of GIS. After the sharing of experiences, the Academic Coordinator of Grades 1 - 3, Ms. Fathimath Shereen shared how teachers’ assessment records are monitored and the kind of feedback given to improve the assessment methodology.

Teachers who attended this two-hour session shared that the session was beneficial and that they are motivated to take students to a different height in learning by following Formative Assessment when assessing their students’ work. Hence, they thanked the staff of GIS for sharing the experience and also some schools requested to have small group sessions with them as and when they require our assistance.