Editor
The euphoria that embraced achievement of the highest matric pass rate since 2003 in South Africa is perfectly justified.
We indeed revel in the excellent work of the many committed learners, teachers, administration officers, officials, parents and communities.
May you prosper!
However, the jubilation and celebrations that came with the Minister’s announcement of the results of the National Senior Certificate (NSC) seem to have somewhat obliterated from our minds the critical story told by the 2013 Annual National Assessments (ANA).
This excitement seems to have sent the story into oblivion without allowing us an opportunity and space to digest and make sense of it.
Even the media has not been really helpful in waking us up to the realities of which the story tells about the state of affairs in the other grades.
Instead, they have assisted us to prepare for the entombment of the story that has a potential to assist us execute our mandate diligently.
This letter is an attempt to invite our minds back to the significant issues that the 2013 ANA raised for our attention.
The ANA serves as a significant learner achievement indicator of quality in the South African schooling system.
That is, the purpose of the yearly ANA report is to enable all those in education to utilise the findings to devise and implement strategies in order to further improve the quality of basic education.
As such, the 2013 ANA results bring into our consciousness the successes and challenges of the basic education system.
The following represents an overview of findings of the 2013 ANA:
The total number of learners who registered for ANA 2013 was 6 997 602. The number of learners in Grade 1 was the highest (1 190 280). Forty-eight per cent of registered learners were female, and 52 per cent were male. 23 662 public (out of 24 136) and 793 independent (out of 1584) schools participated in the 2013 ANA. This means that 447 (1.9 per cent) public and 791 (49.9 per cent) independent schools did not participate in ANA 2013. As expected, KwaZulu-Natal province had the highest number of learners participating in ANA 2013, with 1 544 484 learners.
Performance in Home Language was at an average of 56 per cent (from 55 per cent in 2012) for Grades 1-3, 51 per cent (from 42 per cent in 2012) for Grades 4-6, and 43 per cent (no improvement from 43 per cent in 2012) for Grade 9.
Performance in Mathematics was at an average of 57 per cent (from 55.3 per cent in 2012) for Grades 1-3, 36.3 per cent (from 31.3 per cent in 2012) for Grades 4-6, and 14 per cent (from 13 per cent in 2012) for Grade 9.
Performance in the First Additional Language (FAL) was at an average of 40.7 per cent (from 33.3 per cent in 2012) for Grade 4-6, and 33 per cent (from 35 per cent in 2012) for Grade 9.
The Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) stipulates that a mark of at least 50 per cent should be achieved for adequate and higher achievement.
Percentages for learners who achieved an acceptable achievement level (of 50 per cent or more) were as follows:
Mathematics: Grade 3: 59 per cent (from 36 per cent in 2012); Grade 6: 27 per cent (from 11 per cent in 2012) and; Grade 9: 2 per cent (no improvement from 2 per cent in 2012);
Home Language: Grade 3: 57 per cent (no improvement from 57 per in 2012); Grade 6: 68 per cent (from 39 per cent in 2012) and; Grade 9: 37 per cent (from 39 per cent in 2012);
First Additional Language: Grade 6: 41 per cent (from 21 per cent in 2012); Grade 9: 17 per cent (from 21 per cent in 2012).
Performance in public and independent schools: Mathematics: Grade 3: public 53.3 per cent and independent 57.7; Grade 6: public 39.0 per cent and independent 49.3 per cent. Home Language: Grade 3: public 51.0 per cent and independent 54.1 per cent; Grade 6: public 58.5 per cent and independent 66.9 per cent. First Additional Language: Grade 6: public 45.8 per cent and independent 57.8 per cent.
Female learners outperformed male learners in all provinces.
In all grades and subjects, there was a tendency for learners in higher quintile schools (schools from affluent communities) to achieve better than learners in lower quintile schools (schools within poor socio-economic contexts).
This increase was more significant from Quintile 4 and 5 schools.
The following conclusions can be made from the above findings:
In lower grades, more learners were attaining acceptable achievement levels than in higher grades.
More learners were obtaining acceptable achievement levels in languages than in Mathematics.
Learners did not perform as well as in Home Language in First Additional Language.
Learners in independent schools (that participated in 2013 ANA) performed better than learners in public schools.
The socio-economic context of schools seems to have a significant impact on the performance of learners.
What I have outlined above is a national overview of the 2013 ANA results.
That is, I have not been able to get to what the results look like at school level.
I am under no illusion that the results are useless if they are not made sense of at various levels, particularly at district, circuit and school levels, where the actual work is supposed to happen.
Without dedicated focus on the operational levels, we run the risk of going through rounds and rounds of ANA without achieving anything if the results of the ANA do not influence actions at these levels going forward.
The view that these levels should do something about ANA results sounds as we are exonerating ourselves from culpability.
It sounds as if we are saying: “You’ve got the results. Interpret them and tell us what you are going to do about them.
We will come and monitor whether you are doing what you said you will do.”
That is not entirely the intention of my point; it is a rather a call for us to work together to make sense of these results, and decide what will work for us going forward.
That is, you are not alone; we are in the ANA together!
Jabulani Ngcobo
Jabulani Ngcobo works in the Department of Basic Education: Planning and Delivery Oversight Unit, and is writing in his personal capacity.