Johannesburg - The battle between the Department of Basic Education and teacher unions over the Annual National Assessments (ANAs) is far from over.
On Friday, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced the department will go ahead and administer the assessments in December instead of February, as agreed before with the unions. Motshekga had said two weeks ago that the tests - which were supposed to be written last week - had been postponed to February.
This after the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu), which is the biggest teacher union, said their members would boycott the tests and not administer them.
Two other unions, the National Professional Teachers of South Africa (Naptosa) and Suid-Afrikaanse Onderwysersunie (SAOU), also announced they were unhappy with the way the the tests are being conducted. The ANAs are meant to test the literacy and numeracy of pupils from Grade 1 to 9.
Now, the unions are angry that Motshekga and provincial education ministers decided to go ahead with the ANAs in December without consulting with them. At a media briefing on Friday, however, Motshekga said provincial education MECs had agreed that it would be in the best interest of the pupils to write the ANAs this year.
“In our engagement with unions last week, it was agreed that we would postpone the assessments for a period of 90 days. The dates agreed at CEM (council of education ministers) are in line with that 90-day period as agreed,” she said.
“Even though we raised the possibility of writing ANA in February, CEM felt very strongly that it would be in the best interest of the learners and the administration if it is written this year.”
Motshekga said the issues raised by unions were important and would be dealt with by a task team being set up to look into the ANAs. SAOU chief executive Chris Klopper said Motshekga’s decision placed all their agreements around the ANAs at risk.
“We had agreed that to avoid disruption of education, we would jointly devise a new system in 90 days. We were going to not only look at a new system but also teacher development and then decide on the appropriate time to write. Now this places all agreements at risk.”
Klopper said Motshekga’s decision was “kneejerk” and “irresponsible”.
“Practically there will be no children at school between December 1 and 4. When children finish with their exams, they go on holiday. There will also be no-one to mark the scripts because teachers will be finalising report cards. The minister has not thought this through. This arm-wrestling will not work,” he said.
Schools close on December 9 for the festive season. Sadtu’s general secretary Mugwena Maluleke said Motshekga’s decision was “regrettable”.
“We want our teachers to relax, there will be no ANAs this year. This is the time for unions to stand together and prove what they are worth. The minister is not worried about education but service providers who have been paid for the exams. This corruption must end,” Maluleke said.
Naptosa president Basil Manuel said they were also disappointed by the decision. “We are disappointed that there was no consultation even though there is a forum for that. We are not sure if the issue can be resolved this year,” Manuel said.