School reports delay because of dept slip-up

Many schools are not able to capture marks and produce reports after the department of basic education failed to release a vital computer patch required by all government schools.

The SA School Administration Management System, known as SA-Sams, is free software that is updated every year. It is provided by the education management information systems (EMIS) unit in the department.

It allows schools to capture crucial data, such as pupil and parent information, disciplinary records and records of marks.

The department promised to release the latest patch by Monday, but failed to do so. Term one reports will now only be released at the beginning of term two

A high school teacher in KwaZulu-Natal, who did not want to be named, explained that the patch, which usually arrives during the first week or two of the first term, comes preprogrammed with mark allocations and weightings for each assessment.

The software will then calculate pupils’ marks and generate term reports, which are printed by the school. The delay means many schools are unable to produce reports, even though the first term ends tomorrow.

“This is the first time that we’ve gone a whole term without the patches,” said the teacher. He said many wealthier schools have been using third-party software, which is often expensive, to collate pupil data.

But the department still requires formal submissions of pupils’ marks to SA-Sams at the end of every term. And schools still require the release of the patch to get the mark weightings for each assessment.

EMIS corresponded with some school governing bodies, stating that the delay in the release of the patch was due to a late receipt of the curriculum requirements from the department. The final updates on assessments were only received on Monday, after which the software patch still had to be developed and tested.

The Western Cape is the only province that does not use SASams. Instead, it uses Cemis (Centralised Education Management Information System).

According to a principal at a Cape Town school, Cemis will be able to produce reports for pupils from grades 1 to 9. But grades 10 to 12 are still awaiting the electronic mark sheets from the department, needed to input term marks.

Department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga did not respond to GroundUp queries or follow-ups. – GroundUp