Cape eyes 7% getting 50% for maths test
Only 6.2% achieved 50% or more for maths last year
AS MORE than 80 000 Grade 9 pupils in the province are preparing for this year’s annual national assessment (ANA) in September, the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has set its target at 7 percent of pupils achieving 50 percent for maths and half obtaining 50 percent in a home language.
The annual assessments, which test literacy and numeracy levels of pupils from Grades 1 to 6 and Grade 9, are diagnostic tests, intended to measure pupil performance and provide insight into which areas are in need of additional support.
At the end of last year Grade 9 pupils nationally scored on average less than 11 percent in maths.
Education MEC Debbie Schäfer’s spokesperson, Jes- sica Shelver, said schools this year were provided with past papers while district offices were providing further support to schools that had performed poorly.
The percentage of Grade 9 pupils who achieved 50 percent or more in a home language in the ANA last year was 48.7 percent.
Only 6.2 percent of pupils achieved 50 percent or more for maths.
“All schools
have
been encouraged to conduct their own data analysis in order to address the shortcomings in the tests of 2014,” Shelver said.
This year 822 310 pupils were expected to write the assessments, of which 80 738 are Grade 9 pupils.
Although the ANA timetable is published on the Department of Basic Education’s website, Department of Basic Education spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said preparations were still under way.
The Cape Times asked Mhlanga what the department would do to ensure that papers were not riddled with errors, as they had been last year.
Teachers said the Afrikaans paper contained poorly constructed sentences while the maths exam also contained an error that the department later withdrew.
“The ANA is a work in progress. Any concerns or issues raised are dealt with accordingly in terms of the platforms available in the department. For this year preparations are under way and we will publish details once all aspects are concluded,” Mhlanga said.
The tests are scheduled to start on September 15 and continue until September 18.
South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) general secretary Mugwena Maluleke said the ANA was a “waste of time” by the department.
Sadtu had previously called for the ANA to be scrapped.
“Teachers prepare pupils for tests, they do not educate them. In preparation for the ANA, pupils are programmed to complete questions but essentially they learn nothing,” Maluleke said.
“For example, teachers would show pupils how they should answer, but pupils would not learn anything.”