Mixed views over call to ban failing of pupils in early grades

Eastern Cape education unions and school principals have mixed views on the basic education department’s call to ban schools from failing pupils in grades 1 to 3 this year.

Pupils will now move from the foundation to the intermediate phase, even if they have not mastered basic numeracy and literacy skills.

On November 17, directorgeneral Mathanzima Mweli told parliament that the council of education ministers had given schools the go-ahead to implement automatic progression in the foundation phase.

The council consists of the nine provincial education MECs and basic education minister Angie Motshekga.

Mweli said the problem was not the dropout rate but the high failure and repetition rates in different grades.

Public Servants’ Association Eastern Cape manager Thami Makuzeni said the move was an indication of the department’s “attitude to do anything to save the academic year”.

“The decision will haunt these learners, who are proceeding with a huge deficit in terms of the curriculum scope, ” Makuzeni said.

She said the department was technically implementing a “pass one, pass all” system which could never benefit pupils.

“Most learners are likely to struggle in the next grades and [this] might easily lead to larger dropout rates in the near future.

“And then we will be surprised when a huge number of learners disappear within the system and do not reach Grade 12,” Makuzeni said.

However, Monga Peter, of the National Association of School Governing Bodies, said the association agreed with the decision.

“We regard it as an inevitable or unavoidable policy position of the department of basic education,” Peter said.

The principal of Mvume Springs Primary School, Saziso Mfundisi, said automatic progression of pupils was not a new concept but the department needed to equip schools with a proper implementing system.

“Age cohorts are a longstanding factor in our schools, where learners who become too old for a grade are automatically progressed to the next grade.

“However, from an academic point of view, foundation phase learners go from 4 to 6 subjects in the intermediate phase, which is usually a difficult transition,” Mfundisi said.

The department needed to equip teachers with the skills to implement an automatic progression to the next grade.

Mfundisi said: “We usually use our wisdom as educators on how to deal with such situations. ”

It was important to note that “the quality of education a learner receives will not change automatically moving on to the next grade”, he said.

In his address to MPs, Mweli said there were instances where there could be up to a 30% failure rate in Grade 1.

In many countries, failure and repetition is no longer allowed at any level of schooling,” he said.