The Strategic Planning, Research and Coordination Chief Directorate hosted a roundtable titled Post Compulsory and Higher Education Support to Department of Basic Education National Assessment: National Senior Certificate (NSC) and Annual National Assessments (ANA) on 5 March 2014 where all 23 universities, the Deans Forum, and Higher Education South Africa as well as other key stakeholders were invited.
The purpose of the roundtable was to discuss concrete contributions to the DBE’s plan to improve the quality of the basic education sector. The universities were provided with an opportunity to submit written input primarily based on ANA and the NSC as well as contributions towards improving teacher education and training, amongst others headings. This formed the basis of engagement at the roundtable.
The opening address by the Director-General highlighted key issues including the disjuncture in curriculum development, assessment and teacher education and the roundtable was intended to start strengthening the link between these structures and to initiate collaborative effort to ensure improved quality of basic education.
The Deputy Director-General for Curriculum Implementation and Monitoring, Mr M Mweli said “the Department of Basic Education (DBE) has made progress in terms of improving quality education in schools and the DBE needs to pay attention to key programmes such school infrastructure, workbooks, Annual National Assessments and CAPS to maintain the gains made.”
Dr R Poliah, the Chief Director of National Assessment and Public Examinations emphasised that the Annual National Assessments’(ANA) presents opportunities to reflect on what has been achieved, the lessons to be learnt and challenges that still need to be tackled towards achieving the goals specified in the Action Plan to 2014: Towards the Realisation of Schooling 2025. Issues on comparability, benchmarking and verification ANA were also noted and efforts to address these matters were explained.
The focus on National Senior Certificate (NSC) was on consolidating the gains and improving teaching and learning across the system. Therefore emphasis was placed on improvement in the quality of NSC passes, a trend we have already begun to see in the 2013 NSC results.
Mr Rabotapi, the Director of Educator Performance Management and development and whole School Evaluation added that the Strategic plan and the Annual Performance Plan(APP) have prioritized improving teacher capacity and practices through provision of effective, coordinated and high quality teacher development programmes effective recruitment strategies; strengthening school management and promoting functional schools through the provision of proper management tools ;and strengthening the capacity of district offices.
The Planning Framework for Teacher Education and Development Strategy (ISPFTED) revolves around three key priorities; ensuring effective system improvement; improving under-performance and effective use of platforms for driving teacher development programmes.
There’s a need to improve capacity in this regard to meet demands for enrolling grade R in all primary schools, and to strengthen existing interactions through establishment of a more formal structure to plan and monitor progress on priorities in the ISPFTED.
The Dean of the Education Department at the University of the Witwatersrand, Professor J Baxen stated that teachers need to be prepared to implement any form of curriculum and said the university will do its best to ensure that teacher students receive adequate training. On the other hand, Dean of the Education Department at the University of Pretoria, Professor I Eloff said that when the department is rolling out ANA, it should consider testing only one grade.
Eloff believes that testing multiple grades through ANA creates challenges to reach credible results. The Dean of the Education Department at UNISA, Professor V McKay mentioned that in order to groom young teachers in the schooling system all senior teachers should be involved in the process.
In his closing remarks, the DG Soobrayan advised that strengthening teaching practice in the Foundation Phase will help learners to improve when they move to the higher grades so the emphasis on teaching practice cannot be overstated. Secondly, the partnership between universities and the DBE should be strengthened to ensure that knowledge and experience from practice, policy and academics is shared consistently.
Furthermore, research should be shared systematically to enhance practice and academic work, and more coordinated efforts by both parties should be undertaken in order to make an impact although it must be acknowledged that education is a long process, and change takes time.
