Province not budging as reports on ANAs required

Teacher unions were opposing the tests until they were revised

THE provincial department of education will not submit a report to the national department on how many schools administered the Annual National Assessments.

The Department of Basic Education (DBE) is expecting provinces to deliver reports by today.

Teacher unions and the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) were opposing the ANAs until they were revised. However, the DBE pushed ahead, insisting pupils sit for the diagnostic tests from November 26 and December 4.

Education MEC Debbie Schäfer gave Western Cape schools the option to not write. Yesterday, her spokesperson Jessica Shelver said they had not requested schools to send in ANA-related reports.

“Schools are also not required to report on the results,” Shelver said, adding the DBE had not not put any mechanism in place for information to be collected, and the WCED would not be submitting anything.

SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) provincial chairperson Jonovan Rustin said there were no reports that any of its 14 000 members had participated in the ANAs.

In September, the DBE postponed the assessments to next year after teacher unions put pressure on it to revise them. Not long after this, they were rescheduled to be written this month. Last month, teacher unions announced they would be boycotting administering the ANAs.

“Sadtu called for teachers to boycott involvement with the assessments until it is revised and done in three-year cycles to create time for remedial action. We are pleased that no member so far has indicated participation,” Rustin said.

DBE spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said because the reports were being collected this week, he could not comment on whether Western Cape schools participated. francesca.villette@inl.co.za

@FrancescaJaneV