Tachers have not come to grips with assessment yet – but it is not their fault, says Peliwe Lolwana, CEO of Umalusi, the council for quality assurance in general and further education.
Lolwana told theTeacher in an interview after the fourth Sub-Regional Conference on Assessment in Education in Johannesburg that teacher preparation and orientation programmes are not addressing assessment sufficiently.
“Assessment is a painful thing if you don’t understand it,” Lolwana said.
She said that Umalusi could tackle the problem by providing teachers with the “language” they needed to assess their learners adequately.
“We have begun to say what we mean by different ‘levels’ [of achievement]. We have been doing this for moderators and examiners. If we provide the language there will be a backwash to teachers and schools that will help them to draft question papers and do assessment,” Lolwana said.
Speaking about the relationship between assessment, standards and quality assurance, Lolwana said in some circles people believe exams and assessment equal quality education and high standards. According to her educational standards are rather a “basket of things you put together” – for example the allocation of resources, the participation of parents and school communities, and teaching methods.
She said after the end of apartheid many steps were taken to improve the quality of education, such as the deracialisation of education, improving access and stabilising an ungovernable system.
However, a problem crept into the education system when, in the haste to get rid of apartheid education, learning outcomes became standards, which they are not.
“We have been derailed by outcomes. Quality assurance has not been well thought through. It simply became another bureaucracy while the education system continued to weaken,” she said.
“All is not well in the South African education system as poor schools in poor neighbourhoods continue to battle, the flow of learners through the system is not satisfactory and numeracy and literacy skills are questionable,” Lolwana added.
She believes that curricula, improving how children are taught (pedagogy) and support for teachers in areas such as assessment remain key to improve the quality of education.