Too soon to use mother tongue for matric trials, warns teachers’ union

Final examinations will not be conducted in isiXhosa

The option for matric pupils to write trial exams in their mother tongue may be a notable feat for academic achievement in the province, but the idea is ill-conceived.

This is according to the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of SA (Naptosa), which says the provincial education department has not prepared “thoroughly” for the rollout of the multi-lingual exam model.

At the launch of the matric trial exams at a grade 12 revision camp on September 6, education MEC Fundile Gade said the province had made history as grade 12 pupils were now able to write their exams in English, Afrikaans, isiXhosa and Sesotho.

Loyiso Mbinda, Naptosa’s Eastern Cape CEO, said the idea to give pupils the freedom to write in their mother tongue was important. “However, no common dictionary has been developed for the subjects, a huge number of pupils haven’t been taught in their mother tongue and teachers haven’t been trained to mark scripts in isiXhosa or Sesotho,” she said.

Education department spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima said teachers had been provided with guidelines on how to mark papers. “Marking of scripts will still be the responsibility of the subject teacher. If a particular teacher in a particular school is unable to mark the script in isiXhosa or Sesotho, the school together with district curriculum unit can arrange a neighbouring school to assist.”

According to the department’s Circular 10 of 2020, the selected subjects for the multilingual exam rollout are mathematics paper 1 and 2, history paper 1 and 2 and life sciences paper 1 and 2. However, the final matric exams will not be multi-lingual, raising further concerns for Naptosa.

“As the bilingual exams are only limited to the trial exams, it causes great anxiety and fear among learners, already compounded by the uncertainty and fear caused by the Covid19 pandemic,” said Mbinda.

Mbinda said the final matric exam papers had been set 18 months ago, and that the multi-lingual model should be implemented from as early as grade 10, so that pupils could gain familiarity with the process. “This would also give time for the department to communicate with universities and institutions of higher learning to plan around mother tongue assessments and exams. As it stands, nothing tangible will come out of this now.”

Earlier, Gade said pupils who struggled with English and Afrikaans would be able to understand the subject content more easily.

He said more than 2,000 schools in the province had started with the programme since its introduction by former MEC Mahlubandile Qwase.

The MEC was optimistic that the move would help the Eastern Cape achieve an 80% matric pass rate — a feat that would place the province among the top four in the country.

Educational specialist Mary Metcalfe said broadening options to use the first language as a medium of teaching and assessmen, would strengthen teaching and learning.

“This initiative will have interesting implications for the process of standardisation of NSC results. I am excited and hope this is being carefully monitored so we can all learn from this initiative,” Metcalfe said.

In 2012, 74 schools in Cofimvaba adopted a mother tongue-based teaching and assessment programme in grades 1, 2 and 3 and started teaching subjects, including mathematics, in isiXhosa. In 2017, the model was rolled out to a further 310 schools and extended to other lower grades. The programme was implemented at grade 12 level this year.

But Mbinda said the department had lost track of the grade 4 cohort of learners from the 70 schools where the pilot project had been launched in 2012. “Pupils who are no longer registered at the pilot schools are taught their subjects in English,” he said.