Formative assessments and the continuity of learning during emergencies and crises: NEQMAP 2020 thematic review

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented levels of disruption to education globally. By April 2020, schools in 195 countries had been forced to close, affecting more than 91 per cent of the world’s student population. Estimates indicate that about 24 million students (from pre-primary to tertiary education) will be at risk of not returning to education institutions in 2020. This accounts for an estimated 10.9 million in primary and secondary levels, which is in addition to the 258 million children and youth of this age who were already out of school prior to the crisis (UNESCO, 2020a).As a result, many schools are in an unprecedented situation and grappling to find suitable ways to continue teaching and learning. Prolonged school closures have significant implications for learning, assessments and credentials, as the interruption of examinations delays decisions regarding student progression and graduation (UNESCO, 2020d). And the disruption of formative school and class-based assessments significantly impacts the feedback that learners and teachers need in order to maintain and strengthen the continuity of learning. Formative and classroom assessments in any form are important and relevant to understand the learning needs of each student and to adjust instruction accordingly (Liberman et al., 2020) both during normal and crisis situations. In this regard, UNESCO (2020b) contends that during crisis times, formative and continuous assessment provides better options and solutions to approximate learner progress, since summative and high stakes examinations are usually either annulled or postponed by educational institutions (READ, 2020; Save the Children, 2016b). This thematic review explores how countries in the Asia-Pacific region have been able to cope with educational disruptions and what steps were undertaken to ensure continuity in monitoring student learning through formative assessments. The world’s unpreparedness to the pandemic sees the pressing need to relook and examine the past experiences on how countries have effectively responded to ensure uninterrupted educational participation, and particularly conducting formative and school-based assessments to monitor the learning progress of the crisis affected school going children. Inferences drawn from the past experiences during emergencies and crises may shed light on how to formulate guidelines and educational support for current and future planning that countries in the Asia-Pacific region may need to enhance formative assessment procedures to improve quality of education.