Teachers defy Motshekga over extra tests
SCORES of South African schools have defied an instruction by the Department of Basic Education to administer the Annual National Assessments.
This comes after five teacher unions called on their members to boycott the tests this week following accusations that Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga pulled out of mediation talks with them.
The department has denied this, and has instructed schools to administer the tests between this past Thursday and next Friday.
The tests, which cost R140-million, are designed to monitor pupils’ performance and diagnose areas of weakness in language and numeracy. But unions have said the assessments are inconsistent, and ineffective at measuring pupil performance. The department said teachers should mark the tests, which should be completed by the end of the first school term next year.
Basil Manuel, president of the National Professional Teachers Organisation of South Africa, said yesterday that he was not aware of any school that had written the tests on Thursday.
There was confusion as some provincial education departments sent out circulars that countered the department’s instructions.
Western Cape superintendent general of education Penny Vinjevold asked schools to consider administering the assessments “if your programme for the rest of the term allows this”.
She said schools were not required to report on the results of the assessments.
Basic Education Department spokeswoman Troy Martens said some schools wrote the tests on Thursday while others indicated they would be writing tomorrow.
“We will get a clearer picture by the end of the week.”
The unions said in a statement that they were disappointed that principals across the country were being intimidated and bullied. It claimed principals were told to “either collect the ANAs, or [get] disciplinary letters”. The unions remained committed to remodelling the assessments, the statement said.