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Johannesburg - The
opposition Democratic Alliance has questioned the decision to postpone
the writing of the annual national assessments [ANA] tests at government
schools. "Who is currently in charge of our country’s education system?" said DA MP Annette Lovemore in a statement. In
a last-minute move, the Department of Basic of Education (DBE) on
Friday announced that the 2015 ANAs,which test numeracy and literacy,
which was scheduled to start on Tuesday and be written by 8.6 million
pupils, has been postponed until February next year. The decision came
after the department engaged with unions, including the SA Democratic
Teachers' Union (Sadtu), who had spoken out against the assessments. "It
is completely unacceptable that Sadtu is allowed to get away with
compromising the education of our children and therefore their future
opportunities for a better life," said Lovemore, labelling the education
department's move to postpone the tests as having "caved" to the
unions. "The
importance of the ANAs must be recognised. Our education system is
mired in crisis, with only half of our children able to read properly by
the end of Grade 3, and only 3% of our children being appropriately
numerate by the end of Grade 9. "It
is essential that we test literacy and numeracy every single year and
that interventions are aggressively implemented, informed by the results
of the tests." Earlier
this week, DBE national spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said the
postponement was "in the best interest of schooling stability and will
also assist in improving the quality and the thrust of the national
assessment programme."
September 14 2015 at 07:07am
By LEANNE JANSEN, FRANCESCA VILLETTE AND ILSE FREDERICKS
Comment on this storyINDEPENDENT MEDIAThe annual national assessments
(ANAs), which assess the literacy and numeracy levels of pupils from
grades 1 to 6 and in Grade 9, were due to start on Tuesday but have been
postponed till February.
File picture: Timothy Bernard
Johannesburg - The education of more than 8 million children has been
thrown into disarray after the Department of Basic Education bowed to
pressure from teacher unions and postponed the Annual National
Assessments (ANAs).
The postponement seemed cast in stone as early as Tuesday when the
South African Teachers Union (Sadtu), which is the majority union,
threatened to boycott the tests. It called on its members to refuse to
administer and mark the assessments.
Two other teacher unions – the National Professional Teachers
Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) and the South African Teachers
Union – also demanded that the assessments be done in three-year cycles
in order to create time for remedial action.
The tests, which assess the literacy and numeracy levels of pupils
from grades 1 to 6 and in Grade 9, were due to start on Tuesday but have
been postponed till February.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga made the decision in spite
of her concerted efforts last week to rescue the tests when she held
meetings with the unions.
A statement signed by the leadership of the three unions said it had been a joint decision to postpone the tests.
The unions said a three-year cycle for the ANAs would create time for remedial action.
The tussle between Motshekga and the unions has raised the alarm on
the government’s ability to enforce policy and on questions about the
power that unions affiliated to the ANC-led tripartite alliance hold,
according to education researchers and political analysts.
Following the announcement of the postponement on Friday, the
department has admitted that it would have to go back to the drawing
board to consider alternative means to improve pupils’ literary and
numeracy competency.
It said the postponement was in the best interest of schooling
stability and would assist in improving the quality and thrust of the
national assessment programme.
A task team comprising teacher unions and department officials has
since been established to address the unions’ grievances and assist the
department to remodel the assessments.
As the department mulls over the problem, the unions are also
celebrating the fall of the “Gazette regime”, which refers to what they
argued was the department’s tendency to publicly issue policy in
Government Gazettes and through circulars without consulting them.
The unions also got the department to commit to improving its
relationship with them, and channel more resources into teacher
development. They said Basic Education Director-General Matanzima Mweli
had committed to urgently addressing matters affecting the working
conditions of teachers.
Explaining its call for a boycott, Sadtu general secretary Mugwena
Maluleke and deputy general secretary Nkosana Dolopi accused the
department of waging a “well-orchestrated low-level war” against unions
and of continuously failing to improve teachers’ working conditions.
At an education research conference at Stellenbosch University last
month, Motshekga pledged that more guidance would be provided to schools
on how to use the assessments to improve classroom practice, and she
acknowledged that her department needed to work on refining the tests.
Education researchers have frequently pointed to the flaws in the
assessments. The chief arguments were that the results weren’t
comparable over years, and that schools had taken to cheating.
Naptosa president Basil Manuel said schools and education districts
often felt so pressured to perform in the assessments that they
neglected the curriculum.
“Teachers would prepare pupils for what is to come in the diagnostic tests, which is not supposed to happen,” Manuel said. The Star
September 4 2015 at 10:16am
By Tebogo Monama
Comment on this storyINDEPENDENT MEDIAThe South African Democratic
Teachers Union (Sadtu) has resolved to instruct its 250 000 teacher
members to boycott invigilating the ANAs until the department of basic
education stops imposing policies that compromise& labour peace .
Photo: Timothy Bernard
Pretoria - With just over a week before the start of the annual
national assessments (ANAs), the biggest teacher union in the country
has announced they are boycotting the tests.
The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) has resolved to
instruct its 250 000 teacher members to boycott invigilating the ANAs
until the department of basic education stops imposing policies that
“compromise… labour peace”.
Sadtu decided to issue this order at its national executive committee meeting last week.
The ANAs, which are a diagnostic tool to assess literacy and
numeracy, are expected to be written between September 15 and 18. About
8.6 million pupils in grades 1 to 9 will write the tests.
The tests were first introduced in 2010. Last year’s ANAs indicated
only 3 percent of Grade 9 pupils were numerate at a grade-appropriate
level.
The target is 60 percent. The average score for the Grade 9 maths assessment was 10.8 percent.
The union claims the department had failed to consult with them on the ANAs.
“However, it has been reduced to an onslaught on teachers, with no
intention to improve the system by ensuring fit for purpose intervention
in the form of ongoing professional development for all in the system
that was supposed to be part of the diagnosis,” the union spokeswoman
Nomusa Cembi said in a statement.
She said the move to boycott the assessments was in defiance of the Department of Basic Education.
She said the department had “committed publicly to consult with
unions on the principal standards (and) regulations” but this didn’t
happen.
Instead, she said, it had embarked on “a gazette-driven tangent”
(matter) which is meant to sideline the unions on issues affecting
conditions of employment.
Despite the boycott, departmental spokeswoman Troy Martens said plans were on track for the exams to continue smoothly.
“We have requested a meeting with the union next week to hear what
their problems are. But according to us, the exams are going ahead as
planned,” she said.
The South African Teachers’ Union (SAOU) chief executive Chris
Klopper said they had also asked the department for an urgent meeting
over the issue.
“The SAOU has always maintained the ANA, in its current form, does
not achieve what the Department of Basic Education says it does,” he
said.
“More specifically, it is neither diagnostic nor formative and
contributes little, if anything, to an accurate assessment of either the
curriculum or the learner’s achievement.
“By extension, therefore, it is also of limited value when assessing classroom practice,” Klopper added.
Meanwhile, the DA has reacted with outrage to Sadtu’s threats to
boycott the ANAs. The DA spokeswoman on Basic Education, Annette
Lovemore, said it would compromise the ability to assess the pupils’
level of literacy and numeracy.
“It is a shameful decision which needs to be reconsidered urgently,”
she said, adding she would write to the union and request they retract
the planned boycott. Pretoria News Get our free IOL newsletters - subscribe here...
National News Flash 25 of 2015: NAPTOSA Position on the 2015 Annual National Assessments (ANA)
The ANA was conceptualised following poor learner performance in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science (TIMMS), as well as the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ)
studies. NAPTOSA, at the time, embraced the intention of a “home-grown”
diagnostic testing system for selected grades. However, the ANA is no
longer a diagnostic systemic evaluation tool, but has evolved into a
content-based test with results being used to “label and punish” schools
and districts in relation to performance. This labelling has changed
the way in which schools and teachers perceive the ANA.
In 2014 we saw schools “teaching to the ANA” to the detriment of the
curriculum. Provincial Education Departments (PEDs) instructed that
days/weeks be dedicated to the preparation for the ANA, as well as
schools having “pre- ANA tests” in some provinces. This abhorrent
practice continues as a result of the pressure to perform at any cost.
NAPTOSA denounces such practices and also rejects the proliferation and
extension of the ANA to all grades as opposed to the initial focus
grades, namely, grades 3, 6 and 9.
NAPTOSA is concerned that sufficient time is not allocated for
schools to consolidate and implement the learning needs as identified.
NAPTOSA has consistently drawn its concerns about the ANA to the
attention of both the Minister and the Department of Basic Education,
but to no avail. These concerns include issues of changed focus from
diagnostic to summative evaluation; lack of consolidation; the
undesirability of a high stakes testing regime; and the absence of
meaningful engagement. Other pertinent issues taken up with the Minister
include the disruption of the academic year, additional educator
workload, unfair demands on special schools, and change in focus and
purpose. The timing of the ANA is also cause for concern.
NAPTOSA regrets the fact that all our proposals regarding the above have, to date, been ignored.
Accordingly, NAPTOSA sees no purpose in the ANA as it is currently
implemented and strongly believes that there is a need for it to be
overhauled rather than continuing blindly with a flawed policy that
costs millions annually and amounts to nought.
Consequently, NAPTOSA is of the firm opinion that the values and
purpose of the ANA have been compromised. NAPTOSA is engaging in
consultations with other educator unions, as well as the Minister and
the Director General of the Department of Basic Education. Once these
have been concluded, NAPTOSA will evaluate its continued participation
in the ANAs.
