Minister tested by teacher revolt
Postponement of assessments may be best for all
BASIC Education Minister Angie Motshekga was always going to have to confront the teachers’ unions eventually if she wanted to make progress in implementing long overdue educational reforms in SA.
The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) in particular is widely acknowledged as being an impediment to necessary change because it routinely puts the narrow interests of its members ahead of those of pupils, and uses its political clout as a leading affiliate of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, an important alliance partner of the governing party, to frustrate policy makers’ best intentions.
This would be unacceptable in any democratic country, but it is especially problematic in SA because of the urgent need to reverse racial inequality. And it is unsustainable politically for the African National Congress, which risks losing electoral support if educational outcomes are not improved drastically.
It is common cause that the only long-term solution to social and economic backlogs in SA is to reverse the apartheid policy of deliberately keeping black people “hewers of wood and bearers of water”, by improving basic education.
One of the most urgent required reforms is the implementation of a reliable national assessment model in order to be able to gauge progress. This is acknowledged across the political and educational spectra, yet Sadtu has long resisted it, apparently out of concern that the outcomes will reflect badly on its members’ competence and dedication as teachers.
Now, after initially bowing to union pressure for the existing annual national assessment exams for Grades three, six and nine — originally scheduled for this month — to be postponed to February, Ms Motshekga has finally shown a willingness to stand firm.
Last week, the Department of Basic Education issued a surprise statement reversing its earlier decision and announcing that the assessments would take place before the end of the academic year.
Unsurprisingly, Sadtu was outraged, vowing to boycott the process. And ominously for Ms Motshekga, its stance has been supported by the other four main teachers’ unions, which, while not opposed to national assessments in principle, agree it is impractical to forge ahead with the process before year-end. They are not the only ones urging caution — advice Ms Motshekga would be well advised to heed.
A range of educational experts are warning that the annual national assessment system is fatally flawed because too many schools do not have the capacity to implement it properly. They are calling for the suspension of the pupil assessment process until this has been corrected.
Oddly, Ms Motshekga acknowledges that the assessment model is in need of reform, and has even announced the formation of a task team to investigate the veracity of the unions’ concerns, which include a paucity of funding for teachers’
The existing assessment system is fatally flawed because too many schools do not have capacity to implement it properly
development and the excessive administrative burden that is imposed when the assessments have to be conducted every year in addition to the normal test and year-end exam cycle.
Her about-turn is therefore hard to comprehend, unless it is a case of the government finally tiring of being dictated to by Sadtu and drawing a line in the sand.
If that is the case, it should choose its battles more carefully — there is a strong argument in favour of replacing annual national assessments with a three-year assessment cycle that can be aligned with the fiscal cycle.
That way, not only will teachers have longer to prepare to implement and process the assessment tests, but the state could budget properly for their not inconsiderable cost — as well as for the remedial teachers’ training and administrative capacity improvements that are almost certain to be flagged by the task team as necessary reforms.