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Date : 22/10/2004
Title: Pandor: uMalusi lunch


ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, NALEDI PANDOR, MP, AT THE UMALUSI LUNCH, CSIR INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE CENTRE, Pretoria

Mr Pampallis
Dr Lolwana
Ladies and Gentlemen

It is with sadness that I say a few words of farewell to Dr Cassius Lubisi, uMalusi’s former Chair.

The sadness comes in saying goodbye to a leader who has imprinted his personality on an organisation with a central role to play in our transformed education system.

In his Chair’s foreword to the uMalusi 2003/4 annual report, he says the following about his resignation: “It seemed like a part of me was about to be taken away”.

Well, I can tell you on behalf of those associated with uMalusi that the feeling is mutual.

However, uMalusi’s loss is our gain, because of course your resignation has allowed you to take up an appointment as DDG in the Department, where we are now pleased to have your undivided attention.

During Dr Lubisi’s time as Chair, uMalusi has grown out of its origins in the South African Certification Council and developed a new capacity and stature by:

* reviewing and improving the inherited quality assurance systems for nationally certificated examinations;
* redesigning and upgrading its certification system;
* adding the General Education and Training Certificate for adults to its certification responsibilities;
* putting a provisional accreditation system in place to quality assure providers;
* starting research to underpin policy development;
* establishing itself as a new education and training assurer by participating in various related national and international conferences and other dialogues; and
* more than doubled and stabilised its workforce.

These are considerable achievements. Perhaps his most considerable achievement was to establish the independence of uMalusi in the public domain at a time when its integrity was under attack. You will recall that there were allegations made earlier this year that the 2003 matric results had been politically manipulated by the Department. I think that the openness with which these allegations were met allayed any public panic about political manipulation.

So it is important to confirm here today that uMalusi is an independent body whose primary business is to assure the quality of the matric examination. It is crucial to the success of our democracy that we respect the independence of our statutory bodies.

Dr Lubisi, we all owe you a deep debt of gratitude for the role you have played at Umalusi.

I now take pleasure in introducing Mr John Pampallis who was appointed chair in August of this year.

Mr Pampallis has taught at schools in South Africa, Botswana, Canada and Tanzania. In Tanzania, he spent eight years as a teacher and deputy vice principal at the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College, a school for young South African exiles.

He knows how hard Oliver Tambo worked to ensure that South African exiles got an education wherever they were across the world, and he probably knows that Oliver Tambo was an excellent maths teacher in his youth, which is a fact that we should recognise and celebrate.

Mr Pampallis knows how deeply engrained in the democratic movement is the demand for a quality education that is free for all.

He has extensive experience in the field of education policy. He was a member of the ministerial committee to review school organisation, governance and funding in 1995 and he has worked with the national and provincial departments of education in developing and evaluating numerous research and capacity building projects. Until recently he was a member of the steering committee of the education policy support initiative of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), an initiative to build capacity in education policy, management and planning in the region.

His publications include a history book, Foundations of the New South Africa (1991) and a co-edited collection of articles published under the title, Education and Equity: The Impact of State Policies on South African Education (2001). He is the series editor of They Fought for Freedom (Maskew Miller Longman), a series of biographies of leaders of the liberation movement, aimed at upper primary and lower secondary schools. He has also published papers on education policy, particularly on the reform of the South African schooling system.

He holds a Masters in Education degree from the University of Manitoba (Canada) and he was Director of the Education Policy Unit at the University of Natal prior to November 1996, when he was appointed Director of the Centre for Education Policy Development (CEPD).

Mr Pampallis, the task you have assumed at the council is a daunting one. Not only is there much work to be done in quality assurance and with the complexities of the national qualifications framework, but also your first major challenge is just around the corner.

You will be required to assure and assess the conduct of the 2004 senior certificate examination and to confirm that the results to be released on 29 December are fair and credible.

In this regard I would like to say a few words about the release last month of the uMalusi report on matric standards that has given rise to a number of negative reports in the press about the quality of our school education.

For example, on 1 October the Mail and Guardian reported that a “government-commissioned study” had found that the standard of matric has declined.(1) Then, on 10 October the Sunday Times main editorial offered the opinion that a decline in the standard of matric would “haunt us in the form of skills shortages”:(2) And on 11 October The Star reported that schools had not been set a new target for a better matric pass rate in 2004.(3) It continued that there is a new approach in the Ministry that puts quality over quantity. In the opinion of one school principal: “The meteoric rise in the pass rate also came at the expense of quality and the barring of some pupils from entering matric.” The article then focused on the difference between standard and higher grade and quoted the uMalusi CEO as saying that a national norm was needed for the higher grade exams. “If for instance there is a national higher grade acceptance benchmark of 20 percent, then schools should produce this,” she said, “Ideally, the benchmark should be increased to 30 percent in order to be in line with international standards.”

UMalusi has a crucial role to play in building the confidence higher and further education institutions and business place in the matriculation certificate. There are always pessimists around, who believe that more means less, who believe that change is dangerous, who believe that standards are slipping. There are always those Cassandras who warn of impending doom.

For the public record, there are five arguments that need to be contradicted.

First, that the improving pass rate reflects political imperatives. An improving pass rate is a political imperative, but not in the way intended by our doomsayers. We do want a higher pass rate if it is the natural outcome of better schools, better teachers, and better learning. We do not want a higher pass rate if it is a result unscientifically manipulated in the marking process. The exam’s quality assurance is the responsibility of uMalusi, which is an independent organisation established by law. Neither the department nor the ministry has the power to intervene in the marking, grading and moderating of public exams.

Second, that the new curriculum is easier to pass than the old. The key to the rigour and demand of any qualification is the curriculum content and the method of assessment. And it is difficult to compare an old system that was based on rote learning with one that includes a continuous assessment element. However, the process by which grades are set is the same, while the level of challenge has to improve with the growth of knowledge.

Third, that standards are being allowed to slip even though the process of quality assurance is independent. Safcert (uMalusi’s predecessor) introduced the current system for comparing standards over time. The system seeks to ensure that any grade given to a candidate in one year is comparable with what they might achieve had they sat the same exam in an earlier year. The Scottish benchmarking test showed that there was no evidence of ‘dumbing down’ in our exam. But there is always need for vigilance. That is why uMalusi continues to research the assessment and standards of the matric exam and that is why we accept the results of the research even if we do not agree with some of the conclusions.

Fourth, that even if standards are not slipping, any system in which the vast majority of pupils pass must be a farce. This is a common sense argument that has a built-in, elitist bias. An improving pass rate is a trend the world over. When everyone passes in a good school, no one complains. No one suggests that standards are slipping at SACS, Michaelhouse or Herschelle.

Fifth, and last, too many students now get As. Of course, universities and employers do need a means to select the highest achievers. And they have accepted that the new FETC will be the minimum entry requirement into higher education. But our argument is that such a need for an elite success rate is no basis for marking down the successful efforts of an increasing number of candidates.

These five arguments are a challenge to those pessimists who talk down educational achievement every Xmas. When the facts say teaching standards are rising, when the facts confirm the rigour of tests and exams, when the facts show that poor pupils are doing well, the only conclusion we can draw when commentators talk of falling standards is that they believe our poor pupils have neither the brains nor the talent to do well.

Quality of education has become a priority for government and it is important that independent bodies like uMalusi improve each year the quality assurance for which they were established.

I thank you.

(1) Thabo Mohlala and Julia Grey, “It’s official: Matric is easier”, Mail and Guardian, 1 October 2004.

(2) “Back to the Blackboard”, Sunday Times, 10 October 2004.

(3) M. Monare, “Will Matric 2004 make the grade?”, Star, 11 October 2004.

Issued by: Ministry of Education
22 October 2004
Source: Department of Education (http://education.pwv.gov.za)

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