'Compliance, credibility, validity, integrity and reliability are the five buzz words in any standardised assessment. The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education is serious about ensuring the integrity, reliability and validity of the 2012 Annual National Assessment (ANA) results. The province replicates most of the practices that are employed in the Grade 12 internal and external assessments. This way of running ANA in the province will produce good results in a broader sense.
Our principals at lower levels are gaining experience in running standardised assessment. Through the process in which ANA is conducted in the province, principals are exposed to an experience of being "examination/assessment centre managers". This kind of exposure will improve the conduct of internal examinations in most of the schools using the ANA experience. Right now all schools that write ANA in the province use a common management programme for ANA. The principals will use the same approach to obtain valid and reliable results in their internal assessments.
Our educators at lower levels are getting excellent exposure to high standards of invigilation. Educators have been trained in invigilation and they are applying the principles of reliable invigilation well in the ANA Assessment. This experience will improve the conduct of assessment in all schools in general. In ANA, the subject or learning area teacher is not allowed to enter the assessment room. All invigilators are not teachers of subjects that are being written on the day. All these are national standards which are used in matric examinations.
The monitoring system of ANA is another strong point in the province. It is rolled-out in the same way as Matric Examinations is conducted. The district, provincials and national monitors are visiting schools to ensure that that the assessment process is credible, and is characterised by integrity, validity and standards. This will improve the performance of teachers in the areas of assessments. The monitoring reports, so far, indicate that invigilators and chief invigilators are in compliance with rules and regulations for the administration of ANA.
The schools collect question papers on the date of the examinations in nodal points. None of the schools collect the paper a day before. The memorandum is handed to schools after the administration of the assessments. This minimizes the risk of irregular practices. This also ensures that all question papers and memoranda remain unknown until it is safe to release them. This will give the province reliable and credible ANA results which will enable the system to introduce relevant interventions for improvement.
Teachers will mark at school and complete the computerised mark sheet for computerised capturing. After the marking of ANA by teachers, there will be a centralised moderation-marking process. Samples of scripts from schools will be taken to a central marking centre where identified subject/learning area specialists will confirm the standards of centralised moderation/marking. This process will take one week to complete.
For more information contact:
Muzi Mahlambi
Cell: 082 519 1420
Sihle Mlotshwa
Cell: 072 207 2018
Muntu Lukhozi
Cell: 082 562 5965
