Johannesburg - The Suid-Afrikaanse Onderwysersunie (SAOU) has raised questions on the big differences between the marks of school-based assessments, the annual national assessments (ANAs) and matric results.
The union said on Wednesday that, according to its research, pupils perform way better in school-based tests and matric results than in the ANAs.
On Friday, the Department of Basic Education postponed the ANAs after the three biggest teacher unions – the SA Democratic Teachers Union, the National Professional Teachers Organisation of SA and the SAOU – called for the assessments to be done in three-year cycles to create time for remedial action.
The ANAs are standardised assessments for languages and mathematics in the intermediate phase (grades 4 to 6) and in literacy and numeracy for the foundation phase (grades 1 to 3).
The department announced that there would be an ANA remodelling task team made up of teacher unions and department officials before the exams are written in February.
Last year’s ANA results show only 3 percent of Grade 9 pupils achieved 50 percent or more in maths. The matric results, on the other hand, showed there was a 75.8 percent pass rate for maths.
Wessel Viljoen, the SAOU’s adviser on secondary school education, said the discrepancies in the different marks might be because teachers were setting easy school tests, and that the ANAs weren’t taken seriously in schools.
Viljoen said the National Senior Certificate results were also better because weaker pupils are phased out of the system before they reach matric.
“The other issue is that mathematics is only compulsory until Grade 9. From Grade 10 onwards, mathematics is chosen only by learners who want to pursue careers that need the subject, and that accounts for about 50 percent of the kids,” he said.
Teachers were also aware of their pupils’ understanding of subject matter and would therefore set tests accordingly.
“Teachers set an exam in which two-thirds will pass. They know if they set it higher, none of the children will pass. The ANAs are not like that, it is preset, so more learners fail,” Viljoen said.
The SAOU said they were also unhappy that pupils with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities attending full-service schools were also made to write the assessments.
The Star