CAPE TOWN - Pupils have fallen up to 70% of a school year behind previous cohorts in language, and up to 106% of a year behind in maths, the 2021 systemic test results for the province show.
The greatest losses were in the Foundation Phase, with the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) on Sunday saying the 2021 systemic test results confirmed the devastating impact of Covid-19 on education.
The 2021 results are in comparison to tests conducted in 2019, as testing could not take place in 2020. Administrative data from the WCED’s Temporary Revised Education Plans (TREPs) also showed that 155 school days were lost in the province in 2020 and 2021.
In maths grade 3s in the province saw a drop from an average of 54.5% to 46.7%.
Language in the same grade saw an 8% drop in average from 44.9% to 36.9%.
In Grade six, the maths pass rate dropped from 44.4% to 37.3%.
In language in the same grade the pass rate dropped by 3.4% from 42.8% to 39.4%.
Grade 9 maths saw a 1.1% drop in the pass rate from 22.7 to 21.6 and language a 3.5% drop from 53.6 to 50.1.
Education MEC Debbie Schäfer said they were studying these results and accompanying diagnostics with a focus on updating learning recovery plans to address the losses.
“In 2021 the WCED put a structured language approach in place in all three Western Cape Home Languages based on the Science of Reading. The Department is now looking at ways to incorporate extra time for Reading, Writing and Mathematics in the Foundation Phase,” she said.
Schäfer added that the findings would also be presented to teachers for use in planning learning programmes for the learners in specific skills and core competencies.
“Ultimately, the most important way to claw back these losses is to ensure that every child is at school every day, that teaching and learning time is maximised, and that every effort is made to promote a learning culture beyond the school,” the MEC said.
ANC member of the provincial legislature, Khalid Sayed said while the pandemic had an impact, it was not a valid enough excuse for the results.
“We are deeply concerned with the fact there's been this decline and poor showing of results. Our argument is that the systemic tests is a reflection of the poor state of the learning and teaching conditions in our schools.
Overcrowding and more teachers were urgent issues that needed to be addressed, he added.
“What should have been addressed is overcrowding of our classes. We have too few teachers, we need to run up employment of educators. The Minister of Finance made an allocation to the province to address this issue, we want them to use the money wisely.”
He added that they also called for the department to assist with the funding of tutors in maths and science, especially in poorer areas.
Education activist Hendrick Makaneta said while Covid-19 was devastating there were also other factors that could have played a role, including the quality of teaching.
“Schools are able to employ teachers that are not qualified for a subject. They may be qualified to teach a particular subject, but then there is a shortage (for example) of natural science, resulting in them being placed there even though they don't have the necessary methodology.”
He added that poorer quality education as a result of overcrowding in especially township and rural schools and a lack of parent involvement was also a huge problem.
Cape Times