Democratic Alliance press statement by Annette Lovemore MP DA Shadow Minister of Basic Education Northern Cape education department may be ‘cooking’ matric results The Democratic Alliance is shocked and angered at a letter sent to education district staff in the Northern Cape by Dr M Ishmael (indicated as Deputy Director-General: Curriculum and Assessment) of the provincial Department of Education. The DA received a copy of this letter this afternoon. In the letter, which specifically relates to Grade 12 assessment, prior to the National Senior Certificate exam at the end of this year, Dr Ishmael has instructed that all learners must receive 60% for their school-based assessments. Dr Ishmael subsequently orders that, if 60% is not obtained, the assessments should be repeated and that teachers be required to “revise” the content for the assessment before this repeat opportunity in an effort to foster better performance. This constitutes a scandalous ‘cooking’ of results which cannot be accepted. Indeed, much concern has been voiced about school-based assessments by education experts, including, most recently, by the ministerial task team investigating the National Senior Certificate. The report of the task team states School-Based Assessment (SBA) across all examinable subjects in the NSC has been particularly problematic because the raw scores coming from some schools correlate so poorly with examination performance and patterns vary markedly from school to school. It has been noted that SBA can inflate results or lead to unfairness. Based on the letter he has written, Dr Ishmael, together with the Northern Cape Department of Education, is guilty of directing that school-based assessment marks be inflated to an average of 60% for each learner. It is him and people in the system with attitudes such as his that contribute directly to the (justified) perception of the low level of credibility and quality of the National Senior Certificate. The Ministers NSC task teams recommendations include Stepping up the accountabilities of the various implementers and managers. Principals and heads of subjects in schools must be held more accountable for the validity and reliability of SBA. Minister Motshekga has an opportunity to show, clearly, that she will not tolerate any interference with the validity and reliability of SBA. She must demand an explanation from the Northern Cape Department, and she must make a very public example of their actions and of her response. The DA will accordingly raise parliamentary questions to obtain details of the action taken by the Minister. In addition, the DA will pursue the matter in the Northern Cape provincial legislature, demanding that an explanation of the letter, the investigation that must take place and subsequent steps to restore credibility to the assessment system be presented to the education committee. Education is about the learner. It is not about making officials look good.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 17:51:45 +0000
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