Primary school teachers are resorting to the controversial practice of “pass one, pass all” in their classrooms because the paperwork they must complete and the procedures they must follow to fail learners are so time-consuming.
This was told to the Mail & Guardian by a school principal last week and confirmed in a survey of primary school teachers. Even if a teacher recommends that a learner repeat a year, parents can lodge an appeal, which can be overturned by the principal or the district education office.
“The result is that teachers don’t want to put forward the names of learners who have to repeat,” a Western Cape teacher said. “Children are simply pushed through.”
The teacher experienced the pitfalls of the system first hand when the district education officer overturned a recommendation that a learner repeat a grade at the end of last year.
The guidelines require teachers to keep regular records on the performance of learners to determine if they qualify for promotion.
This is based on a policy that no learner should stay at the same primary school phase — foundation, intermediate or senior — for longer than four years. The aim is to ensure that learners finish their compulsory schooling at the end of grade nine by the age of 17 or 18.
Nardus Nothnagel, of the North West education department, said it is standard procedure that a teacher should constantly inform parents about the academic progress of each learner. Copies of assessment reports had to be filed with the school principal and the district office, in part for evidence in cases of dispute.
But the teachers contacted, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the burden of paperwork and the age policy encouraged them to try to beat the system. In the end it works against the learners themselves, because they struggle as they progress to higher grades.
Allison Kito, a retired principal of Pretoria Girls’ High, said high schools were not immune to such practices.
The National Department of Education failed to comment.