SCHOOL’S IN
Four key areas of focus to save the 2020 school year
For most school students, 2020 was a massive setback in their learning trajectories. The loss of formal school days due to school closures during lockdown led to learners losing up to 85 days, or 42% of the school year.
Once schools reopened, the vast majority of learners attended school only every second day or second week to satisfy social distancing requirements. Without access to remote learning or learning support in the home, this meant further lost days.
In our recent study, “Schooling in the Time of Covid19”, the issue of lost learning time emerged as the most prominent educational issue during the pandemic. The case of a grade 5 pupil, Cassandra, in a quintile 3 school near Cape Town, is telling.
Cassandra’s school closed on March 18. In late April her school was able to open for school feeding and she got some of her school books. Over the next four months she received occasional WhatsApp messages from teachers on her mother’s phone with photos of worksheets to complete and some instructions around work to complete in her workbook.
She finally returned to school with the other grade 5s on August 31. Because of the rotational timetabling model, she attended school once a week, on Tuesdays, and once a month on Fridays; a total of seven days at school for term 3. For the last term, assessments will start on November 18, and so in the fourth term she will have five days of teaching and learning. In total, Cassandra will have had 12 days of on-site teaching and learning at school in 2020 since March.
Although grade 5 learners are in one of the worst-hit grades, Cassandra’s case illustrates the very disrupted schooling that pupils have had, with little face-to-face teaching and learning. For many, there were no books or communications from the school during school and grade closures. Loss of teaching time has reached extreme proportions, such that the completion of the academic curriculum has been impossible in almost all schools apart from the very elite.
As we head into 2021, we also need to heed events in the international context where seasonal changes and opening up have led to further lockdowns and school closures. We too may face further losses of learning time ahead. From our research there are four key areas where we think the government, schools, teachers and parents need to urgently intervene in order to optimise time usage now and mitigate further losses down the line.
The first issue relates to school closure in 2020, set for December 15. As Cassandra’s case illustrates, and what we found across informants in our recent study, most schools will not teach up until December 15. School personnel in our study indicated a range of dates that teaching and learning would cease — from the end of the third term (October 23) to mid-November to end-November. The reasons varied, but mostly related to the writing of the matric exams and year-end administrative procedures for all grades. It is, we know, common practice for much teaching and learning in schools to stop when matrics start writing. However, this year it means the loss of an additional six and a half weeks of precious learning time.
The department of basic education has been clear in its policy that no exams are to be written in grades R to 11, to prevent an examination period that would crowd out teaching time. In the foundation phase, the instruction was for no formal assessment whatsoever. So, while the writing of tests may occur in some grades, in general, teaching should be proceeding as normal up until the end of the school year.
Clear guidance stipulating year-end administrative time and teaching time up to December 15 needs to be provided. Clear communication to learners that they should attend school until the last day is also required, with some consequence for non-attendance.
The second time issue concerns the start of the school year in 2021, planned for January 24. The length of school closure in December/January is unprecedented and certain to add to the loss of learning, especially for children from homes without books. It is not clear why schools are returning so late in January, especially given the urgency of recovering learning lost in 2020. One reason provided is that teachers are involved in marking of the matric examinations. This is relevant only to about 10% of teachers, who have to have taught matric in the previous two years in order to qualify to mark.
We recommend that grades R to 3 return to school on January 11 2021. This is the level where research shows learning losses would have been the greatest and where lack of mastery in basic reading, writing and numeracy is most consequential for the rest of students’ schooling.
An analysis of repetition in the study indicated that because the promotion and progression requirements for 2020 have been relaxed, far more current grade 10s and grade 11s will progress to grade 11 and grade 12 in 2021. This will mean larger classes, as well as more heterogenous classrooms, where it is difficult for teachers to meet the needs of all learners.
Our third suggestion is that the school day be extended for these two final grades by an hour.
A learner could gain roughly 80 days of teaching and learning time by staying just an hour longer at school over a two-year period. This would allow current grade 10 students to catch up almost all the days of learning time they lost in 2020 by the time they write the matric exam.
Finally, it is crucial that the December/January period be used by learners for revision in their homes. Schools should prepare instructional material now for learners and parents to use in the long break ahead. In short, we recommend:
● Ensure that teaching and learning persist until December 15 2020;
● Start school on January 11 for grade R to grade 3;
● Extend the school day in 2021 by one hour in grade 11 and grade 12; and
● Provide mathematics and language texts for home learning in December/January.
Hoadley is associate professor in the School of Education at the University of Cape Town. Van der Berg is professor of economics at Stellenbosch University and holds the South African research chair in the economics of social policy