Johannesburg - The basic education department on Wednesday denied withholding the 2012 Annual National Assessment (ANA) results of individual schools.
Anyone could go to a school and ask for the results, spokesman Panyaza Lesufi said on Wednesday.
The department had not released the individual results.
“(But) you go to the school, you get the results of the school,” he said.
The SA Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) on Wednesday said the ANA showed basic education was in a “dire state”.
It called on the department to release a breakdown of the results.
Without this, the true extent of the problem could not be adequately gauged, the SAIRR said in a statement.
The institute said it had written to Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga to ask her to release a breakdown of the results to give a clear picture of the state of education.
“Unless she provides access to the disaggregated results, it is impossible to tell whether the educational system has indeed become more equitable,” the SAIRR said.
Lesufi rejected the institute's claim and asked: “Who takes the SAIRR seriously?”
He accused them of not having read the ANA report.
“They're rushing to judgement. It's people who don't read reports who jump to conclusions and it's wrong.”
Organisations like the SAIRR could visit each school and ask for the individual results.
“You can go to any school and ask them for results and get the results. If they're lazy to go to each and every school then they can't lay their laziness on the state,” Lesufi said. - Sapa