Across Africa and beyond, many education systems are moving to competency-based curricula that centre on critical thinking, problem-solving and real-world application. These learner-centred approaches change the goal of schooling from memorising facts to using knowledge in new situations — for example, applying a scientific concept to explain how diseases spread rather than simply recalling a definition.
Yet despite widespread reform, classroom practice often does not change. Teacher training, materials and implementation fidelity are important, but they do not fully explain why reforms stall. In a recent review of evidence from countries including Ghana, Kenya and Vietnam, we found the main barrier to meaningful change is assessment systems.
High-stakes national exams such as the West African Senior School Certificate Examination and Kenya’s National Secondary School Exams strongly influence what happens in classrooms. When tests reward memorisation and routine procedures, teachers reasonably teach to that test. This creates a “double bind”: teachers are expected to develop higher-order competencies under the curriculum while also being judged by exams that emphasise recall and procedural accuracy. The result is often surface-level reform — new lesson formats or activities appear, but instruction continues to prioritise what will be examined.
In practice,—and across many contexts—exams become the de facto curriculum. What gets tested narrows what is taught, assessed and valued. If assessment systems remain unchanged, competency-based curricula will struggle to produce the intended outcomes.
Changing this requires rethinking assessment, not discarding national examinations. The key is to redefine what tests measure so they align with the goals of competency-based learning. Assessment should foreground what students can do with knowledge: tasks that require analysis, problem-solving and application to authentic problems rather than primarily testing recall.
Two practical directions can help: diversify assessment methods and improve system design. Combining national examinations with school-based assessments — such as projects, portfolios, and performance tasks — gives a fuller picture of student learning. But these approaches must be designed to be fair, reliable and scalable across large systems, or they risk introducing inequity and inconsistency.
To guide policymakers and system leaders, we propose the LEARN model:
– Learner-centred assessment design: create tasks that mirror how students are expected to use knowledge.
– Evidence of competence: prioritise demonstrations of skill and reasoning over rote recall.
– Adaptive to context: allow flexibility so assessments make sense in different classrooms and communities.
– Reflective and feedback oriented: integrate assessment practices that inform teaching and support student growth, not only certify achievement.
– Nationally relevant and scalable: ensure approaches align with national standards and can be implemented reliably at scale.
The LEARN model shifts attention from standardised test formats to aligning assessment with meaningful learning. It shows that systems can balance national accountability with authentic measures of competence — but only if assessment design, incentives and accountability are reworked to support the curriculum’s aims. Without that alignment, exams will continue to prevent students from developing the useful skills modern societies need.
