Leave the children alone! That was the main import of the Department of Education’s emergency press conference last week about the matric results. But, once again, the truth was hidden behind statistics.
Faced with the political fallout from the growing scepticism and devastating critiques following Minister of Education Kader Asmal’s announcement last week of another leap in matric passes, the department tried to razzle ‘n’ dazzle the public with figures showing how marks were adjusted according to clear scientific principles.
The show was led by the department’s Director General, Thami Mseleku. Asmal himself was not present — no reasons given. It featured a lecture from a statistics professor who scattered terms like median, anchor, raw-mark, adjusted cumulative and Pears analysis (at least, that’s what it sounded like: though much repeated, the term was not explained nor even spelled for the class — poor teaching technique, there).
All this high science appeared to be intended to settle only one point raised in recent debates — namely, that the marks are artificially inflated. The message to the public was: don’t worry, here is how it is all done, your marks are entirely reliable.
The problem was that the lecture both made that case and also contradicted it. In one subject, the professor explained, an overall 3% downward adjustment was made — ”but not at the bottom levels: it seemed unfair to fail those who passed on raw marks”. Really? And that is supposed to assure us that the overall massive increase in the pass rate truly reflects the overall robust health of the school system?
Mseleku also inadvertently managed to disprove, or at least seriously compromise, his own case when he observed that the department noted in 1996 that most failures were occurring in the 34% to 39% range, ”and we said we had to ensure they moved a bit to the right [to 40% — a pass]”. But ensure that by what means? No light was shed on this.
Umalusi, the supposedly ”independent” body that monitors the matric exam all the way from the setting of the papers to marking and moderation, was also put on display. But how independent is the Umalusi?
It is a statutory body whose members are approved by the education minister. Not too much independence there. And the body’s head, Cassius Lubisi — a fine academic in his own right — just happens also to be Asmal’s special adviser. Independent? Lubisi also drives the process that in 2008 will see the matric exam replaced by the Further Education and Training Certificate. In other words, the department deploys Lubisi to proclaim the health of an assessment system he is simultaneously working to replace. If it’s working, why fix it?
The statistical smoke and mirrors and protestations that the exams were well run completely evaded all the main areas of concern. These chiefly emanate from objections to the central claim the government has made since the passes started soaring — that the improved pass rate indicates a fundamentally well-operating school system.
But — to repeat some central concerns — the quality and so usefulness of a matric pass seems to have declined (judging from what employers and academics say about it); vast numbers of learners appear to be compelled to write at the standard grade (where it is easier to pass); and there has been a dramatic and still unexplained reduction in the number of candidates. It has been the main concern of the now-maligned critics of the exam to point out that the school system — and its glittering pinnacle, matric — continues to constitute a gross disservice to poor learners in particular, for all the undoubted improvements in the disastrous system the 1994 government inherited.
One genial comment on Tuesday illustrated the problem. After assuring us that all was above board and transparent, an Umalusi member concluded the feelgood exercise by saying that ”learners and their parents enjoying themselves on the beach should continue doing so”. That the vast majority of learners, whether they passed or failed, are unlikely to be frolicking in the surf right now, and very likely to be wondering whether they will ever find a job or get into tertiary study, was obliterated from view.
Surely the centre of attention needs to be the quality of what actually happens in the classroom. For that, immediate resources need to be focused on teacher training — one of the most worrying omissions of the Asmal years. That will in time enable genuine ”continuous assessment”, which will in turn enable the huge weight (75%) given to the final exam to be lightened. School resources need quick attention: the government’s own research shows that large numbers of schools still operate in conditions completely hostile to teaching and learning (no water, electricity or sanitation, for example). School fees must be scrapped — they still serve to exclude many. That is a very short list of reforms that can be implemented immediately — and have immediate effect. But for that we need visionary commitment at the top to genuine, long-term improvement, not hocus-pocus gimmickry for short-term political gain.
And that will require, as this newspaper said last week, political intervention. Asmal’s achievements as education minister have been considerable, but the past week’s matric debacle show how thoroughly he is stuck in a political rut beyond which the country has moved. For the sake of our children, we need a new minister — one more interested in classrooms than classy acts.