ABSTRACT
We live in an age of assessment. The language of performance and targets, as well as detection and comparison, pervades our lives as if these means were an end in themselves. Whatever the terms employed, from testing and measurement to competition and shame, the notion of apparent transparency and openness has become so powerful that it has replaced all means of development or help. All is to be tested and measured, against ever-new targets and new standards, so that if something was not found wanting before it soon can be. Whether it is in the name of accountability or not, the obsession with measurement seems to have overtaken actual behaviour. No one would deny the importance of knowledge, of what is going on, but evaluation, that desire to both acknowledge and develop actual performance, is quite distinct from the assumption, so easily reported, that the assessment of performance is an end in itself. Creativity and development lie not in measurement, but in measures to help.
