On 21 February 2026, I ran AI readiness workshops with school leaders at Cambridge International Schools Day in Accra, Ghana. Twenty-four schools completed an AI Readiness Framework, a self-assessment tool that scores schools across five dimensions of AI preparedness. Twenty-eight responses were collected in total, as several schools had more than one participant complete the assessment.
The results tell a clear story. Schools are investing in hardware and tools. They are not investing in the governance and policy structures needed to use them well.
Niall McNulty running an AI readiness workshop for schools in Accra
Balancing innovation with accessibility in education across the Global South
The arrival of generative AI tools like ChatGPT has sent ripples through educational systems worldwide, leaving many educators caught between embracing innovation and preserving academic integrity. While much of the global North grapples with preventing AI “cheating,” schools in South Africa and the broader Global South face a more nuanced challenge: integrating these powerful tools meaningfully within contexts of varying digital access and infrastructure.
The AI Assessment Scale Framework
The AI Assessment Scale (AIAS), developed by educators Mike Perkins, Jasper Roe, Jason MacVaugh and Leon Furze, offers a promising approach that might be particularly valuable for South African schools. Rather than taking a binary view of AI use as either permitted or prohibited, the AIAS provides a five-level framework that allows educators to clearly articulate how and when AI tools can be appropriately integrated into learning.
This scale moves beyond the simplistic “cheating” narrative that has dominated discussions since ChatGPT’s release in November 2022 (and in fact, is still raised in meetings with school leaders). Instead, it acknowledges that we, as educators, define what constitutes academic misconduct and must clearly communicate these boundaries to our students.
The Five Levels Explained
The AIAS consists of five distinct levels of AI integration:
Level 1: No AI
At this level, students complete assessments entirely without generative AI. This approach works well for supervised activities, handwritten tasks or examinations where personal knowledge and skills must be demonstrated. In the South African context, this level creates equity by removing potential advantages for students with greater digital access, particularly relevant in areas with limited connectivity.
Level 2: AI-Assisted Idea Generation and Structuring
Here, students can use AI to brainstorm and structure ideas, but they must produce the final work themselves. This level is particularly useful for idea development and might help South African students working in additional languages rather than their mother tongue. They might use AI to help generate initial ideas but must develop and express these themselves.
Level 3: AI-Assisted Editing
Students create original work at this level but can use AI for refinement and editing. This proves especially valuable for language improvements and could support South African learners working across multiple languages. Students would submit both their original drafts and AI-assisted final versions to demonstrate the editing process.
Level 4: AI Task Completion, Human Evaluation
Students actively use AI for specific components of tasks while critically evaluating AI outputs. This level encourages an understanding AI’s capabilities and limitations and could help prepare South African students for a workforce increasingly shaped by these technologies.
Level 5: Full AI
AI is used throughout the task at the discretion of students or teachers. This approach suits situations where AI forms an integral part of learning outcomes. In well-resourced South African schools with reliable internet access, this might include innovative projects exploring AI as a collaborative tool.
Innovative approaches and artificial intelligence can streamline and enhance the creation of formative assessment questions. Formative assessments, or assessments for learning, are ongoing evaluations used by teachers to monitor student learning, provide feedback, and guide instructional decisions, enhancing the overall learning process.
This article aims to explore a novel workflow that leverages the power of structured data, specifically spreadsheets, and the capabilities of ChatGPT’s Code Interpreter to generate customised classroom assessments. Take it as a prototype or proof of concept. Utilising a detailed spreadsheet to outline requirements offers a sophisticated approach to crafting questions aligned with various curricula, grades, subjects, and educational standards.
The journey from spreadsheet to the classroom involves multiple stages, from understanding requirements to question generation, quality assurance, and final output. It consists of a combination of technology and pedagogy.
Assessment for learning is assessment used during teaching to find out what learners can already do, give them usable feedback, and change the next teaching move. The point is improvement in this lesson or this week, not a final grade.
Clear intended learning, said in language learners can use
Evidence gathered while work is happening: questions, observation, drafts, exit tickets, short tasks
Feedback that names what to do next, not only a mark
Learners looking at their own work, and sometimes a peer’s, against the same criteria
The teacher adjusting the next task when the evidence says the class is not there yet
Classroom techniques
Questioning that requires an explanation, not only a yes. Observing a practical or a discussion and noting who is stuck. Self- and peer-assessment with a short rubric. A mid-lesson check that actually changes the second half of the lesson.
Time is the real constraint. A few techniques used well beat a long menu. Feedback that arrives after the work no longer matters is not assessment for learning.
What it is not
Not more testing. A quiz can serve AfL if it is used to decide what happens next.
Not AI marking as a substitute. Tools can draft comments. The teacher still judges whether the comment is true of this learner.
Formative assessment is used during learning to check progress and change teaching. Summative assessment is used at the end of a stretch of teaching to judge how far learners got against a standard. Most courses need both. Neither is automatically better.
This is not the same distinction as formal versus informal assessment. A conversation can be formative. An exam can be summative. Last reviewed: 31 August 2026.
Final tests, end-of-unit tasks, standardised exams, performances used for a grade
Feedback
Specific, soon enough to use
Often a mark or level; feedback may come too late to retry the same task
How they work together
Formative evidence should make the summative task less of a surprise. Summative evidence should not be the first time anyone finds out a class cannot do the thing. Assessment for learning is the classroom habit of using formative evidence well.
What this page is not
Not “formative is monthly and summative is the exam.” Timing follows purpose, not a calendar.
Not a claim that summative should always outweigh formative. High-stakes uses are a policy choice.
Choosing the right school for your child is a critical decision that can impact their future academic and career opportunities. While traditional schools have been the norm for decades, online schools are becoming increasingly popular. However, deciding which type of school is best for your child can be challenging. To help you make an informed decision, we’ve compiled a list of factors to consider when assessing whether your child is a good fit for an online or traditional school.
Assessing Your Child’s Fit for Online School: Factors to Consider
Social interaction
Physical schools provide ample opportunities for social interaction, extracurricular activities, and team sports. If social development and exchange are essential to you, a traditional school may be more suitable. Online schools may offer limited opportunities for socialization, which may impact your child’s overall development.
Flexibility
Online schools often allow students to learn at their own pace and may offer more flexibility in scheduling. This can benefit students with other commitments or those who may struggle to keep up with the speed of a traditional school.
Curriculum and course offerings
Compare online and traditional schools’ curriculum and course offerings. Some online schools may offer a broader range of electives or specialized courses that may not be available in a physical school. Ensure your chosen school provides the subjects and programs that meet your child’s interests and needs.
Neither formal nor informal assessment is inherently better. The better choice depends on the purpose, the evidence you need, the stakes for the learner, and how the results will be used.
This page is a personal classroom guide, not institutional policy. South African curriculum references are labelled as such. Last reviewed: 30 August 2026.
Formal and informal assessment are different routes to evidence, not a contest with one winner.
Introduction
Teachers use assessment to find out what learners know, can do and still need. Formal and informal assessment both belong in that work. They are not the only useful distinction. Formative and summative assessment answer a different question: whether the evidence is used to improve learning as it happens, or to summarise achievement at a point in time.
A test can be formal and still used formatively if the teacher and learners act on the results. An observation can be informal and still contribute to a summative judgement if it is recorded against clear criteria. Mixing those dimensions is how this topic becomes confusing.
Types of assessment
Formal assessment
Formal assessment is planned, structured evidence-gathering with stated criteria, a defined task, and a record that can be shared or revisited. It often happens at agreed points in a programme. It can include tests, assignments, practical tasks, orals, performances and examinations.
Formal does not mean standardised. It does not mean multiple choice. It does not mean learners never generate their own answers. Constructed responses, investigations and performances can all be formal when they are planned, criteria-based and recorded.
Informal assessment
Informal assessment is the evidence teachers gather in the flow of teaching: questions, discussion, observation, drafts, quick writes and other classroom checks. It is often lighter and more frequent than a set-piece task. It is not the same as “no record” and not the same as “no criteria”.
If informal evidence will later support a mark, a report or a decision about extra help, write it down. Unrecorded impressions fade and are hard to defend.
Should be recorded when it will guide teaching or reporting
Typical strength
Comparable evidence against shared criteria
Fast information that can change the next lesson
Typical risk
Anxiety, narrow tasks, delayed feedback
Bias, forgotten evidence, unclear criteria
Formative versus summative sits across this table, not inside one column. Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam describe assessment as formative when the evidence is actually used to adapt teaching to meet learners’ needs. A formal test used only to rank, with no follow-up, is summative. An informal check that changes tomorrow’s grouping is formative.
Purpose of assessment
Choose the method after you can answer four questions:
What decision or next step will this evidence support?
What kind of evidence would actually show that learning?
How high are the stakes for the learner?
Who will use the results, and how soon?
The 2014 Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, published by AERA, APA and NCME, treat validity, reliability and fairness as properties of an assessment use, not as badges a test automatically owns. A neat marksheet is not proof that the task measured what you intended, or that every learner had a fair chance to show it.
In South African public schools, the Department of Basic Education’s Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements and the National Protocol for Assessment Grades R-12 set recording, reporting and promotion requirements. That is national policy for that system. It does not make every formal task a standardised national test, and it does not make informal classroom checks optional extras with no professional duty of care.
Examples of formal assessment
An end-of-unit test with a mark scheme, including short answers and a longer written or practical item.
A planned oral or presentation assessed against a rubric.
A practical or performance task with stated criteria and a recorded result.
A school-based assessment or examination required by a curriculum or qualification.
A standardised test, when one is actually being used for comparison or placement. Treat that as one formal option, not the definition of formal assessment.
Formal assessment can include tests, orals, practicals and assignments, not only multiple-choice papers.
Examples of informal assessment
Exit tickets or entry tickets: one question on the way out or in, used to decide whether to reteach.
3-2-1: three ideas, two examples, one remaining question.
A two-minute quick write after an explanation.
A class vote used as a starting check, then followed by explanation, not as a mark.
Concept maps or flashcards made in class and reviewed with a partner.
Observation notes during group work or practical activity.
Informal checks work when the teacher acts on them. A pile of unmarked tickets is not assessment.
Using both in the classroom
Use informal checks to see whether today’s teaching landed, and to adjust before a high-stakes moment. Use formal tasks when you need a more comparable record against shared criteria, or when a curriculum requires it.
Do not assume that informal assessment is kinder and formal assessment is harsher. A surprise recitation can be more stressful than a published test. Do not assume younger learners can only be assessed informally. They can complete short planned tasks if the format fits.
Keep records that match the use. Informal notes can be brief. Formal files should show the task, the criteria, the result and any access arrangements. If you cannot explain a mark six weeks later, the record was too thin.
Challenges
Formal assessment goes wrong when the task is narrower than the learning, when feedback arrives too late to use, or when a multiple-choice paper is treated as the only respectable evidence. Multiple-choice items can be useful. They cannot, on their own, show extended reasoning.
Informal assessment goes wrong when it is only a feeling, when it favours the learners who speak first, or when it is never written down. “I just know how they are doing” is not a defence if a parent, inspector or the learner asks for the evidence.
AI tools can draft items, summarise comments or flag possible errors. They can also leak learner data, reproduce bias, and invent fluent nonsense. Keep learner work inside approved school systems, check every AI-generated item before it is used, and keep a human responsible for the judgement. This page is not a guide to automating marks.
Conclusion
Ask which is better only after you know what the assessment is for. Formal and informal assessment answer different classroom jobs. Most teaching needs both, plus a clear line between evidence used to improve learning and evidence used to summarise it.
Department of Basic Education, Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements and the National Protocol for Assessment Grades R-12. education.gov.za CAPS
American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association and National Council on Measurement in Education, Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (2014). APA testing standards
Black, P. and Wiliam, D. (1998). “Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment.” Phi Delta Kappan 80(2), 139-148.
✨ Updated November 2025: Enhanced with AI-powered formative assessment strategies
Formative assessment plays a crucial role in the educational process by providing educators and students valuable insights into learning progress. These assessments are designed to gather information about a student’s understanding, skills, and knowledge in real time. By leveraging this data, teachers can make informed decisions, adjust instructional strategies, and address individual needs to foster the growth and success of each student.
One fundamental principle of formative assessment is that it’s conducted during the learning process rather than after its completion. This approach helps identify students struggling with the material, offering opportunities for targeted intervention and support. As a result, formative assessment can significantly promote a more engaging and effective learning environment.
In essence, formative assessment enables educators to deliver personalized instruction, foster a deeper understanding of content, and ensure all students progress toward achieving their academic goals. By implementing various assessment techniques, teachers can create a dynamic classroom experience that keeps students motivated, engaged, and on track to succeed.
Summative assessment judges how far learners got at the end of a stretch of teaching, against criteria set in advance. It is the counterpart of formative assessment, which is used during the work to change teaching. For that pair, see comparing formative and summative assessment.
Last reviewed: 31 August 2026.
What it is for
To certify or summarise achievement: a grade, a pass, evidence that a unit’s goals were met. Typical forms: end-of-unit tests, exams, performances or portfolios used for a final judgement.
It should not be the first time anyone discovers the class cannot do the thing. Formative work should have made the summative task unsurprising.
Design checks
The task matches the stated goals, not a surprise skill
Conditions are fair enough to compare (time, access, language)
The mark scheme is usable by more than one marker
Feedback, if given, is still worth reading even when the grade is done
What it is not
Not the enemy of formative assessment. Most courses need both.
