Boost their subject knowledge
the life sciences or the physical science examination and social studies teachers can choose to write either the history or the geography exam. The educators will write the subject exam along with the grade 12s at the nearest examination centre;
O Feedback to the educator will include a copy of the marked examination script(s). The latter will also be supplied to the relevant school subject heads, principals and subject advisers.
O After feedback has been received from the marking centres, in-service assistance in addressing knowledge gaps will be provided by the relevant school subject head and subject adviser;
O Educators and subject advisers who achieve the required 80% benchmark will be at liberty to voluntarily continue writing the exam in the subsequent years to further improve their professional credibility.
O After achieving the benchmark of 80%, educators and subject advisers will be obliged to write the relevant matric exam every three years. This will bring school education into line with many other professions in which regular reaccreditation assessments are obligatory.
The department must also advise all tertiary teacher-training institutions that, after year three of the initiative, all prospective candidates applying for a teaching post in the grade 7 to 12 spectrum will be obliged to provide certified proof of an 80% or higher matric-level competency in their main teaching subject. Where it becomes necessary to fill vacancies with candidates who have not yet achieved the 80% benchmark, such appointments will be at a temporary level until the post can be filled with a fully compliant candidate.
This approach to educator upliftment addresses all the highlighted criteria. The senior phase (grades 7 to 9) educators are included because the curriculums from grade 7 onwards introduce and expand on concepts and skills that the pupils will be required to have mastered by the end of their grade 12 year. Given that grade 12 pupils write exams in seven (often more) subjects in one year, the expectation of educators to obtain a minimum of 80% in a single subject (that they teach every day) over a period of three years is more than reasonable.
It is also important to note that, in the world’s top-achieving education systems, an 80% pass mark in any single subject would be insufficient for admission to tertiary teachertraining institutions.
Notwithstanding this comparatively low benchmark, the introduction of this proposal will have a huge and almost immediate positive effect on South Africa’s educational woes and give a much-needed boost to our national morale. It will provide a solid data-based cornerstone on which further improvement can be based.
The proposal is a low-key adaptation of the Mckinsey report of September 2007, How the World’s Best-performing Systems Come Out on Top.
It is as relevant today as it was then. It can be sourced at mckinsey.com/industries/social-sector/ our-insights/how-the-worlds-bestperforming-school-systems-comeout-on-top and is a “must read” for all who care about the quality of public school education in South Africa.
Tom Jourdan is a retired high school deputy principal and coauthor of life sciences textbooks, who is putting together a guidebook for educators. Contact him at madeltom@gmail.com