Assessment of the achievements and progress of children and young people is a regular part of school work, inseparable from learning and teaching. The main purpose of assessment is to provide indicative information about the study and how its goals will be achieved. Assessment monitors how they manage to achieve the general competence standards of the National Curriculum Guide, promotes learning motivation, stimulates students to progress and assesses what assistance they need.

Assessment aims to gain knowledge about the success of school work and how individuals and groups are achieving set goals. Assessment should provide students and their parents, teachers, host schools and school authorities with information about learning progress that can be used as a guide when planning studies. In order to fulfill this multifaceted role, assessment must meet the conditions of being valid and reliable. It must be ensured that all assessment is designed to assess what it is intended to assess in a reliable manner.

Assessment in the school curriculum and school work plan

The criteria for assessment and feedback should be explained in the school curriculum so that students, parents and all school staff are clear about what requirements are made and how the school intends to assess how they are being met. Students, parents, teachers and other school staff need to be able to understand the results of assessment in a similar way. This is a prerequisite for using the information to improve learning and teaching.

Diverse assessment methods

The goals of school work are diverse and there are various ways to achieve them. Therefore, assessment methods must be diverse. They must be in accordance with the competence criteria, reflect the emphases in teaching and take into account the students. Assessment should be reliable, impartial, honest and fair. All aspects of the study, knowledge, skills and competences, must be assessed with reference to the criteria in the National Curriculum Guide.

Teachers need to help children and young people make realistic self-assessments, explaining to them the goals of their studies and how to move towards them. Emphasis should be placed on formative assessment, where students regularly reflect on their studies with their teachers to approach their own goals in the study and decide where to go. Students need to be clear about the criteria that are used as a basis for the assessment.

The assessment system must be diverse and in line with the emphases of school work and appeal to as many learning areas as possible. Thus, oral tasks, practical and written, visual, short, limited exercises and more in-depth observations, individual and group tasks, tasks completed in a limited time and without a limit, and various types of tests should be assessed. A folder or workbook, where tasks and solutions are collected, e.g. electronically, can be a good way to get an overview of how well the student has worked and provide indications of application, activity, working methods, student progress and social skills. Assessment must take into account the needs of students and their specific learning difficulties. Schools must do what is possible to meet the needs of those concerned in this regard. These students should be able to deviate from general assessment, e.g. longer exam times, specially designed exams, use of resources, assistance and oral assessment.

Evaluation of school work is part of the statutory monitoring work of schools and school authorities, which aims to ensure the rights of students and promote school reform. The aim of evaluation and monitoring is mainly threefold. Firstly, to monitor that school activities are in accordance with the provisions of laws, regulations and national curricula. Secondly, to increase the quality of school work and promote reform, ensuring that students’ rights are respected and that they receive the services to which they are entitled according to the law. Thirdly, to provide information about school work, its results and development.

Schools are responsible for their own internal evaluation, while the Ministry and, where appropriate, local authorities carry out external evaluation of schools. External evaluation includes, among other things, evaluations of school operations as a whole or individual aspects thereof, institutional audits, audits of subjects and learning elements, and monitoring of internal evaluation of schools. The Ministry of Education, Science and Culture is also responsible for monitoring that local authorities fulfil their statutory obligations towards schools where applicable. The Ministry is also responsible for monitoring the status and development of the education system. To this end, the Ministry collects a variety of information about school management, including through participation in international surveys of academic performance and other aspects of school operations.

The Ministry prepares a plan for evaluations at all school levels and publishes them on its website. The Ministry also issues detailed guidelines for internal evaluation that schools can use if they choose.

The National Curriculum Guide forms the basic criteria on which the evaluation of school work is based, but in the school curriculum guide, the school further elaborates on the goals and criteria set out in the National Curriculum Guide and, where applicable, in school curricula. It is important that internal and external evaluation of schools covers all statutory goals of school work, including the role of schools to support students in participating in a democratic society, to promote students’ initiative and independent thinking, communication skills and other issues that, among other things, are related to the basic aspects of education.