mercurio considers a mixture of internal and external assessment as a way that strongly promotes fairness however in most states in australia there is a stronger focus on external assessment inca australia qsa the distribution of responsibilities for assessment in upper secondary education also tends to depend on the subject in many systems including austria and several german lander central institutions hold responsibility for designing assessments in core subjects such as mathematics the language of instruction and foreign languages while teachers hold the sole responsibility for other subjects there is however a general trend for central agencies to take on assessment responsibilities in an increasingly broader range of subjects in terms of transparency it is argued that externally processed assessment for qualification and certification allows a clearer communication of students achievements cedefop oecd a