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The Democratic Alliance (DA) wishes educational administrators and teachers involved in administering the Annual National Assessments (ANA) well in this coming week’s Grades 2-10 tests. Over 6 million students are involved in what is a foundational exercise of the greatest importance in setting benchmarks for future achievement in numeracy and literacy. Considering that the Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum ranks South Africa’s education system 130th out of 139 measured countries, 125th in quality of primary education and a dismal 137th in quality of maths and sciences education, we have a lot of room for improvement. But the quality of our education depends on the ability of the Department of Education to administer tests, tenders and timelines appropriately.

As is well known, our educational system fails to teach students to read, write and count to the required standard at the various levels of development. The Department of Basic Education (DBE) wants to elevate the current average attainment (which lies disappointingly between 27% and 38%) to reach at least 60% by 2014, a mere three years away.

The ANA will provide the honest numbers we need to track progress. More importantly, it will provide the basis for helping struggling individual students and identifying targets for appropriate educational interventions. The testing therefore has to be well designed and administered, correctly implemented in the classroom, and properly analysed. 

Unfortunately, we understand that the Department of Basic Education, which took over the printing, distribution and delivery of the tests from the provinces for the first time this year, has failed to deliver all the tests on time to the schools. Teachers in the North West Province are reportedly resorting to writing the test questions on the blackboard because they do not have enough test papers. Other provinces have decided to simply choose random students for assessment, rather than testing all. This is not ideal, and it compounds the already difficult situation of many pupils who were supposed to write literacy and numeracy assessment tests last year, but who were unable to do so because of the public service strike.

The DBE’s ANA planning process appears to have been disorganised and leaderless. Indeed, instead of being at work directing the process, Director-General Bobby Soobrayan was overseas visiting China. We are perplexed by Soobrayan’s absence in the last phases of planning for the ANA (and when the Minister and her colleagues reviewed the matric examinations). It is inappropriate that the education department’s top civil servant be absent during such crucial moments in our schooling programme.

The DA desires a well-run department of education that can stick to its commitments and time schedules. But with late delivery of workbooks, unfinished CAPS documents which delay textbook development, missing ANA tests to assess our students and absent departmental leaders, we worry that the department is not playing its role in assuring that our children have a fighting chance to succeed.