Shocking results from the Annual National Assessments written in 2011

In February last year 9 million pupils from grades 2 to 10 across all nine provinces of South Africa sat for the Annual National  Assessments, tests that gauged their ability to write, read and count.

The results were dismal.

The overall average score was 30 percent, with even lower results in maths and languages across all grades.

A qualitative analysis of the results showed the following:

• Pupils in grades 1 to 3 performed better, but scores were much lower from grades 4 to 6
• 21 % of the Grade 3s showed competence in comprehension, that is the ability to understand written text
• 25 % of Grade 3s showed competence to apply basic numeracy skills to solve everyday problems
• 49% of the Grade 4s could comprehend what they were reading
• 8 % of the Grade 4s could change sentences given in past tense to present tense (language usage)
• 20 % of Grade 5s could correctly convert sentences in the past to the present tense (language usage)
• 12 % of Grade 4s could respond to simple questions about a story and give reasons that support their answer (thinking and reasoning)
• 11 % of Grade 5s could answer simple questions and respond to emotions from a story (thinking and reasoning)
• 23 % of Grade 6s could understand what was happening in the story they were reading (reading and viewing)
• 5 % were able to write an introduction and conclusion when writing a text
• the percentage of Grade 6s competent in patterns, functions and algebra ranged from 9 to 45 percent (mathematics)

To read more go to Nontobeko Mtshali’s article on IOL News, by Clicking Here!

To go to the Report on qualitative analysis of ANA 2011 results Click Here! 

 

Education will be the key to the SKA rollout

In a recent article by Duncan Alfreds, he stressed the critical importance of education standards to the rollout of science programmes, as well as the need to accelerate the development of technical skills that will be needed for South Africa to deliver its share of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope to be erected in the Northern Cape Province.  

Currently the South African education sector does not deliver graduates with the critical skills to help in the rollout of the project

70.2 % of students out of a total of 496 090 passed matric in 2011, and of these only 24.3 % obtained a university entrance.

Prof Nithaya Chetty, Group Executive of Astronomy at the National Research Foundation (NRF), and researcher at the University of Pretoria, stressed in an interview with News24 that although universities are seeing an increase in number of applications their abilities are below par, especially mathematical skills, which will be essential if the country wants to reach  its targets. He feels there should be accelerated programmes to teach technical skills to ensure that there are support staff in place to support engineers in projects like the SKA.

To read more go to Duncan Alfreds’ article on News 24 by Clicking Here!

SA government eyeing free tuition to boost skills shortages

In a recent cabinet lekgotla the South African government agreed on a number of resolutions to address skills shortages. The lekgotla noted the mismatch between the supply and demand of skills for specific educational categories in the light of the unemployment rate that is expanding.

Deputy Basic Education Minister Enver Surty gave feedback from the lekgotla. He stressed that the labour market is plagued by skills shortages that constrains the country’s economic growth potential. Keeping this in mind the lekotla resolved to take action on various key matters including:

• examining the possibility of covering the full cost of study for (poor) students in scarce skills areas in all years of study; 
• guarding against downgrading the social science programme provision;
• supporting post-graduate students through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) to develop a new generation of academics in addition to National Research Foundation initiatives;
• intensifying efforts to promote research and development in higher education institutions;
• seeing to it that students that have completed their studies pay back their loans so that other students can also be supported;
• giving urgent attention to the problem of accommodation in the higher education system (only 18.5 % of students are accommodated in university residences)
• ensuring that all infrastructure programmes are linked to skills training and workplace experiential learning;
• strengthening and repositioning Public Service Sector Seta (PSeta) to play a more effective role in skills training for public service
• seeing to it that all government departments pay skills levies, as required by law;
• expanding the intake of interns into the public service, municipalities and state-owned enterprises; and
• utilising training within the public service as largest single employer in the country.

This posting was based on a Sapa article published on Fin24 on 23 august. To read the original Sapa article Click Here!

Poorest schools perform worst in national assessment tests

The recent South African Report on the National Assessments (ANA), showed that the poorest schools fared worst in national assessment tests.

The ANA written in February 2011, involving almost six million learners in primary schools throughout South Africa represents one of the most significant proactive interventions by Government to strengthen the foundational skills of Literacy and Numeracy among South African learners.

The report showed that primary school children from the provinces Mpumalanga, Limpopo, and Northwest could not even reach the basic skill levels for literacy and numeracy. The reason for this according to the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga is socio-economical.

Nationally learners in Grade 3 obtained an average of 35 % for literacy and 28 % for numeracy, and Grade 6 learners an average of 28 % for literacy and 30 % for numeracy.

The percentage of schools that could not obtain the basic literacy skills can be summed up as follows:

Province	Grade 3	Grade 6
Western Cape	41	41
Eastern Cape	45	67
KZN	48	68
Free State	50	80
Gauteng	53	54
Limpopo	61	85
Northwest	63	83
Northern Cape	66	70
Mpumalanga	67	85

To read the Afrikaans article by Antoinette Pienaar in the Beeld newspaper Click Here!

To read the Report on Annual National Assessments of 2011 Click Here!