The good, the bad and the ugly: the many faces of evaluation

Abstract

In recent years such great emphasis has been placed on evaluation that it now plays a leading role in the education system. Evaluation includes a number of angles that have different effects on the lives of students and on centers of education. Although it is true that evaluation has its benefits, the importance that has been placed on it on being linked to material (economic resources) and symbolic (prestige, recognition) benefits has generated a set of beliefs and practices that are detrimental to the development and improvement of education. This article focuses on evaluation in various fields and dimensions, in order to provide a general overview in the national context, but the debate centers on the evaluation of learning at the high-school and higher education levels. The first part presents some of the benefits of evaluation, while the second lists some of the negative consequences that the budding culture of evaluation has shown during it short existence.