School-Based Assessment (SBA) can help achieve a holistic, child-centred and qualitative account of a pupil’s
performance. The same method has been criticised for being subjective, informal and open to teacher bias hence
the reluctance by the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (ZIMSEC) to embrace it for certification and
selection into further education or vocational careers. In 2009, the prohibitive cost of administering national
examinations due to economic problems faced by the country and the subsequent delays in releasing the results
forced The Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture to enrol pupils from primary into secondary schools
using SBA results. This survey, conducted using both qualitative and quantitative methods, was carried out at
three purposively sampled secondary schools (162 pupils) and looked at whether there was consistency between
the national examinations and the SBA results used to enrol pupils. A questionnaire with both open-ended and
closed questions was used to collect data. Seven primary school trained teachers were interviewed to ascertain
their knowledge on SBA and all of them had not received any formal training on SBA. Results obtained reveal
that SBA can be a trusted benchmark for promotion of pupils from primary into secondary school as those pupils
who passed teacher tests at Grade Seven also passed the ZIMSEC national examinations. In order to achieve
efficient use of limited financial resources, the study recommends that the promotion of pupils into Form One be
done using SBA results and that pre-service and in-service training of teachers on SBA be made a priority