While assessment is regarded as integral to enhancing the quality of teaching and learning, it is also a practice fraught with moral and ethical issues. An analysis is made of current assessment practices of teachers in South Africa which seem to straddle the domains of accountability and professional codes of conduct. In the process the position of the teacher as mediator between policies and diverse learner needs is explored in the light of moral and ethical considerations. Based on the notions of ethical caring and caring about, the article suggests the infusing of principles of "ubuntu" in assessment practices may provide a framework to embed and strengthen morality and ethics in South African school assessment practices. (Contains 1 table.)