In their collective efforts to ensure
professionalism and expertise in all
aspects of educational assessment,
relevant stakeholders in the field have
formed a National Assessment Academy (AAU).
According to jambulletin, the AAU would train, certify and coordinate professional educational assessors in Nigeria.
The stakeholders are drawn from a pool of critical professional assessors,
regulators and experts with diverse and vast knowledge and experience of
assessment.
The collaborative effort is being coordinated by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) while the protem-secretariat of the body would be domiciled at the Teacher Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) pending its full take-off.
According to a statement emanating from the Board, the Academy has as its founding stakeholders like the Nigeria Academy of Education, JAMB, TRCN, Medical Laboratory and Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN), Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN), Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria(ClIN)and Nigeria
Medical Association (NMA).
Others are the Joint Universities
Preliminary Examinations Board
(JUPEB), Nigerian Institute of Science
Laboratory (NISL), National Institute
of Science Education and Research
(NISER), National Institute of
Marketing of Nigeria Market (NIMN),
Nigeria Institute of Civil
Engineers (NICE) and the Institute of
Chartered Chemists of Nigeria (llCcON), among others.
The statement further disclosed that
the desire to birth a world-class
Academy in the country was
conceived following a series of
brainstorming interactions first at the
Joint Admissions and Matriculation
Board (JAMB) headquarters in Bwari
followed by sitting up a various
committees all geared towards
identifying and addressing the
existing gaps in the areas of
professional assessment by
educational assessors through the
instrumentality of policy formulation,
standards setting, training and
certification across all professional
disciplines.
It is, therefore, expected to have
these founding members to be
driven by the passion and desire to
deepen and enrich the scope of
educational assessment practice
through the creation of requisite
competencies in Nigeria in line with
global best practices.
This, according to the statement issued at the end of an interactive session,
would be achieved via collaborative
networking and partnership which
will, in turn, foster accountability,
transparency, sustainability, lifelong
learning and shared vision as
guiding principles and propelling
parameters.
The Academy, which is poised to
improve the quality of educational
assessment through the generation
of competent educational
assessors would also be expected
to certify professional educational
assessors in the long run.
Furthermore, the statement
declared that the Academy will not
only conceive but also coordinate
educational assessment policies,
and programmes, as well as
establish and harmonise basic
educational assessment criteria in
Nigeria in addition to providing a
platform for collaboration,
cooperation, partnership and
synergy among professional
educational assessors and
professional agencies.
It is also expected that when the
Academy is fully operational, and each
organisation would have its
assessment training tailored to its
requirements based on specific
mandates, goals and aspirations of
respective organisations.
Trainees would be welcome from
government, corporate,
international, national and private
organisations, as such, the Academy will be receptive of patronage from
both public and private
organisations.
In terms of duration of training,
trainees’ stay at the Academy would
vary in terms of duration and level of
engagement depending on the curriculum being offered.
