Today we can see that our students are increasingly submitted to summative (quantitative) assessments, often numerical.

In my region - under pressure from the education authorities - to such extent that my collegues admit spending more time on evaluation in general than on preparation of their classes.... and it seems that this phenomenon  is increasing  throughout the world, under pressure from an ever more demanding and normative society. 

All this is very disturbing.

Freinet was an opponent of grading and marks and of making a pupil repeat a school year. He created 'devices' such as the certificates, the personal work plan, different forms of auto-evaluation - all this with in mind, not a pedagogy of failure but  of success!

Today we have international tests - PISA and OECD are evidence of these -  and they are created with the intention to make school serve the economy or the company´s "human capital".

In Italy,  MCE has always tried to fight against selection  by refusing to give marks and by working for an evaluation which value all learners.

But what about the situation in the other countries of Fimem?

With the assistance of MCE, that has worked substantially on this subject, we propose a questionnaire regarding these issues. 

 Can we share our thoughts and reflexions by answering the following questions...

1. What is the policy of the Freinet movement in your country concerning evaluation/assessment?

2. What are your proposals for an alternative to numerical or summative evaluation?

3. What public awareness-raising activities have you organized together with parents, authorities, media about the negative effects(such as competition, loss of self- confidence, of self-esteem, hierarchisation.. external motivation)  on children caused by summative (quantitative) assessment 

4. What experiences have we had in our classes and in our schools that we can share on the FIMEM- site and in our papers in order to stimulate our reflexions and propose suggestions?

5. What actions could FIMEM take in order to offer the child the responsability he/she merits  regarding  his/her self-assessment. 

We are waiting for your abundant reactions so we can create a work group on this issue. (All collegues interested in working with these questions are invited to participate in this work group). On the basis of your observations this group will then propose an anlysis as well as lines of action .

For the FIMEM: Sylviane Amiet                                                                              Resource person: Giancarlo Cavinato