POLOKWANE – Although the annual national assessment (ANA) results of Limpopo learners are somewhat better than last year’s, this is not saying much, with gr. 9 learners achieving an average of 9% (8,5% last year) for maths and 33,7% for their home languages.
Some 952 472 learners in gr. 3 to gr. 6, as well as gr. 9, wrote the ANA from September 10 to 13 with the aim of assessing their levels of literacy and numeracy.
The department of basic education aims for a threshold of 60 % of learners mastering the set minimum competency in maths and literacy by the end of gr. 3, 6 and 9 and hoped to achieve this by 2014.
Only a few categories showed a marked improvement. The results of the gr. 4 home language tests improved from an average of 24,1% to 44,1% in 2013, and the first additional language marks improved from an average of 28,5% to 35,8 %.
The gr. 5 home language marks improved from 24,1% to 32.6% and first additional language marks from 25,2 % to 31,1%.
Gr. 6 home language marks improved from 28,2% to 51,6% and first additional language marks from 31,7% to 43,2%.
The gr. 6 maths results were the only maths results that improved somewhat, from 21,4% to 32,9%.
Basic education minister Angie Motshekga made a point of expressing her disappointment last Friday when the results were released, especially the gr. 9’s maths results countrywide.
She said there were major challenges in teaching and learning maths in the country.
In Limpopo 0,9% of learners in gr. 9 achieved acceptable levels of achievement in maths, while the Western Cape was the best province in the country with 7,2% of learners achieving acceptable levels of achievement.
Some 0,1% of gr. 9 maths learners in Limpopo achieved outstanding marks (80% to 100%) in maths, while 98,1% of learners in the province did not achieve or reached “elementary” achievements (between 0% and 39% average).
In gr. 3 all provinces except Limpopo exceeded a 50% average level in maths – 44,4% of Limpopo gr. 3 learners reached an acceptable achievement level.
Limpopo’s gr. 9 home language average was 33,7% with 22,4% of learners reaching the acceptable achievement level, and the first additional language average was 29,6%, with only 12,9 % of learners reaching the acceptable achievement level.
Education spokesperson Phuti Seloba said the ANA was a work in progress, and the department was humbled by the general progress shown. He said the department wished to continue to ensure quality of education for all.
The ANA was a tool whereby the department could assess itself and show areas where improvements were needed, he said.
“Education remains a societal matter and through programmes like ANA we are able to identify possible areas for intervention and collaboration,” he said.
