The (Dis)Connection between Secondary English Education Assessment Policy and Practice: Insights from Bangladesh

Abstract

Given the instrumental wave of globalization, English language has received a more pragmatic attitude and development interventionist promotion in developing countries including Bangladesh. This attitudinal shift and promotion have also led the policy makers of Bangladesh to revise and develop English education related policies including its curriculum, methods, materials and assessment system. Considering the scope of journal writing, the paper critically presents a policy trajectory study of secondary English education assessment in Bangladesh. This qualitative study was conducted as part of a doctoral project employing content analysis of pertinent policy documents and semi-structured interviews with a set of English curriculum policy implementation stakeholders including teacher trainers, school principals and English teachers. The findings highlighted a clear ‘disconnection’ between the intended English assessment policy directions and the practiced pattern. The analysis of data also indicated that, as a washback of such ‘disconnection’ between policy and practice substantially intercedes the overall quality of secondary English education. By accenting the assessment system as the wire-puller, the paper finally suggested that the strict monitoring of the government would facilitate the extent of proper implementation of secondary English assessment policy in Bangladesh.