Annual National Assessments (ANA) got off to a bad start in Grahamstown recently as some schools had their assessments called off due to poor organisation and incorrect papers being sent to schools.
Annual National Assessments (ANA) got off to a bad start in Grahamstown recently as some schools had their assessments called off due to poor organisation and incorrect papers being sent to schools.
The Annual National Assessments were scheduled to start from Tuesday 8 February until 11 Friday nationally in all public schools, and were set to involve six million learners throughout the country.
According to a statement by the Department of Education (DBE) the assessments have been set by the national department in order to provide a benchmark for all schools in the basic education sector. The assessments are intended to concentrate on literacy and numeracy as these are critical foundational skills that are fundamental to all learning. The tests will be based on the performance levels of the grade of the previous year.
Masterminded by the Department of Basic Education (DoBE), it is one of the key strategies that the Department has put in place to improve learner achievement by 2014. The department has set a target of improving numeracy and literacy attainment levels of Grades 3 and 6 from the current average attainment levels of between 27% and 38% to at least 60% by 2014.
The annual national assessments are intended to monitor the extent to which these outcomes are achieved. According to Zola Mothlabane, the school principal at Archie Mbolekwa Primary they couldn't do the assessments because of a number of factors. "Our school couldn't participate in the said assessments because we do not have teachers to see the process through. Who will mark the scripts to start with?." Mothlabane said they were two teachers short and added that the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) also made sure that the assessments didn't take place as they marched in solidarity with students and teachers the following day (9 February) in protest against the DoE's stalling on employing permanent teachers in places left by temporary ones. Some papers (Grade 3) just weren't there at all, leaving assessors and pupils generally confused and frustrated.
A source who was to have been involved with the assessments told Grocott's Mail that the Department of Basic Education (DoBE) had provided very little to no support during the whole thing. The source, who did not want to be named for fear of being sidelined, said, "I visited Samuel Ntsiko Primary on 8 February where they had to call off the assessments after an hour of trying to get everything organised due to incorrect papers, some papers (Grade 3) not being available at all and just general confusion with little to no support from the DoBE on request for assistance."
The principal of Oatlands Preparatory Primary, Rosaria de La Mare told Grocott's Mail that in her school there was just a minor glitch of not having enough exam papers but that they managed to just photocopy the papers and get on with the job at hand. She said, "Other than the shortage of the papers we had a smooth process here at the school."
Grocott's Mail also discovered that not all schools were chosen to participate. Mary Waters, for example, did not have such assessments. It is unclear as to whether the problems as experienced at Samuel Ntsiko Primary school were restricted to Grahamstown or if similar problems have been encountered elsewhere. At the time of going to press, there has been no response to repeated calls to, and messages left at, the national office of the Department of Education. Calls to Loyiso Pulumani, Eastern Cape Department of Education spokesperson have also not been answered. Our source who requested anonymity was scathing about the DoBE. "The problem is that if nobody speaks up then the DoBE and schools continue to cover up these sorts of issues which leads to deeper problems and many more years of shocking scholastic results."
