Sadtu to boycott upcoming annual assessment tests
WITH just over a week before the start of the Annual National Assessments (ANAs), the country’s biggest teacher union has announced a boycott.
The SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) has resolved to instruct its 250 000 members not to invigilate the ANAs until the Department of Basic Education halts policies that “compromise labour peace”.
The ANAs, a diagnostic tool to assess literacy and numeracy, are expected to be written between September 15 and 18. About 8.6 million pupils in grades 1 to 9 will write them.
The tests were introduced in 2010. Last year’s ANAs indicated that only 3 percent of Grade 9 pupils were numerate at a grade-appropriate level.
Sadtu claims the department has failed to consult the union. “It has been reduced to an onslaught on teachers, with no intention to improve the system by ensuring fit-for-purpose intervention,” said union spokeswoman Nomusa Cembi.
Despite the boycott, departmental spokeswoman Troy Martens said plans were on track for the exams.
Suid-Afrikaanse Onderwysersunie chief executive Chris Klopper said: “The union has always maintained that the ANA in its current form does not achieve what the Department of Basic Education says it does.
“It is neither diagnostic nor formative and contributes little, if anything, to an accurate assessment of either the curriculum or the learner’s achievement,” Klopper said.
The DA has reacted with outrage to Sadtu’s threats. Spokeswoman on basic education Annette Lovemore said this would compromise the state’s ability to assess the pupils’ level of literacy and numeracy.