ABSTRACT
Discussions of national assessment systems tend to be conducted in terms of the two major ‘functions’ of assessment: selection and accreditation of learning. This, in turn, implies that there is a more or less tight fit between institutions and underlying social structures, common to modern industrial societies. Systems may vary in the degree to which they emphasize selection via formal assessment, and the point in people's lives at which they do so; just as they may vary in how far assessment ever approaches the transparency of idealized criterion-referencing. However, this analysis implies the nature and development of any given system of assessment can be analysed in terms of these social imperatives.
