Learners and teachers remain uncertain about their preparedness for the new national senior certificate
Teachers and representatives of all four teachers’ trade unions have sounded the alarm on this year’s school-leaving exam, saying they have not been adequately prepared to teach the new curriculum.
The national senior certificate, to be written in about 190 days’ time, will replace ”matric”. It is more demanding and requires pupils to do extensive reading and writing.
Teachers interviewed this week complained that they are not sure they are doing enough to prepare their learners. They also said training has been haphazard and there is a shortage of subject advisers to assist them.
A head of department for history and geography at a prominent Pietermaritzburg school, who asked not to be named, said: ”Since the curriculum is new, we have to research before we teach. We’re battling with content at the teaching level. We’re teaching more than is expected so that we cover all bases and this is putting pressure on the kids.”
The school in question has had a minimum pass rate of 94% in the past 20 years.
But Penny Vinjevold, deputy director general of further education and training in the department of education, is adamant that the department ”has been meeting teachers on a daily and monthly basis” and that various documents had been sent out since 2005, while interaction with provincial core training teams started in 2002.
”We have faith in the teachers. We’ve seen evidence of people working hard. The teachers have to keep teaching and if they have problems they should let us know,” she said.
”We have done all the preparations, produced exemplar exam papers and chosen the exam panel. It’s all systems go.”
Vinjevold said the department had encouraged teachers to use its exemplar papers as well as producing their own and to hold mock exams in June and September.
Until 1996 matric exams were set along racial lines and provincially, resulting in uneven standards. Now nearly all the exams, with the exception of English literature, have been set by the national department and 600 000 candidates will write the same papers.
Teacher unions complained of inadequate and inconsistent teacher training which hardly prepared teachers to deliver on the new syllabus.
”Most of our members have not been exposed to the curriculum thoroughly and are operating on the basis of ‘trial and error’,” said Brian Setswambung, Northern Cape secretary of the South African Democratic Teachers Union.
Dave Balt of the National Professional Teachers Organisation of South Africa said it had repeatedly pointed out the insufficiency of training for teachers. Based on this, the association did not think the results would be acceptable.
But a Pietermaritzburg life sciences teacher, who has been on the provincial core-training team since 2002, defended the new curriculum and insisted he was able to teach it.
”The life sciences matriculant of 2008 will be better equipped with meaningful learning on the human body and the natural environment. We don’t dissect frogs, but deal with issues like diabetes, heart conditions, high blood pressure and global warming.”
For Vinjevold, the curriculum and the exam are ”hugely historic for learners. The curriculum is based on democratic principles.
”It is high-quality, modern and relevant. The exam playing field has been levelled out and raised. It is more demanding than 10 or 15 years ago.”
She said up to 40% of questions would be at a standard grade level. But it was possible in the future that the pass mark would be raised from the current 30% and 40%.
Vinjevold said the department was working with Umalusi, the quality assurance body, to establish norms for the marking of the new exams.
”There won’t be strict or lenient marking. If there is an unprecedented number of learners with As, or a high number of failures, we will look at the examiner’s report.
She insisted that the new exam would put learners neither at an advantage nor a disadvantage.
”We wouldn’t want anyone to fail this year who could have passed last year,” she said, emphasising that the department adjusted marks downwards in the past.
What are the major changes?
The exam:
Introduces new subjects, including mathematical literacy, tourism, mechanical technology, consumer studies and agricultural technology;
Makes it compulsory to take seven subjects instead of the previous six;
Makes life orientation and two of the official languages, including the pupil’s home language, compulsory. All learners must either take mathematics or mathematical literacy;
Apportions 25% of the final mark to continuous assessment in most subjects;
Does away with higher and standard grades; and
Requires learners to pass six subjects, four with 40% and three with 30%, as well as obtaining 40% in their home language. Learners can no longer pass with a minimum aggregate of 720 marks while failing two or three subjects, as in the past.