Labour Wrap: ANA tests - more politics than education

The education system is in a mess, says Terry Bell in his latest Labour Wrap.

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Cape Town - The education system is in a mess, says Terry Bell in his latest Labour Wrap. And the whole furore surrounding the demand for — and boycott of — the annual national assessments (ANA) of learners at schools highlghts some of the problems we face.

Bell adds that teachers, both unionised and non unionised, who refused to administer these ANA tests should be congratulated for standing for educational principles.

He points out that basic education minister Angie Motshekga insisted on the ANAs being applied this month, even although her department admitted that they were flawed. The five teacher unions correctly argued that to implement an admittedly flawed set of tests would be a waste of both time and money.

As a result, and at union insistence, talks were held in September, with lawyer Charles Nupen as the mediator. Just as the unions were becoming convinced that progress was being made, Motshekga sent a message via Nupen that she had decided the tests would go ahead in December, despite the serious objections raised.

However, when the government set the dates for many of the tests, it became obvious that the learners in the grades concerned had already left school. And most teachers, even when time existed to apply the ANAs, refused to do so.

Yet Motshekga and her department persist with the myth that the tests were widely applied. Bell feels that if 5% of schools overall were involved in testing “it would be a lot”.

He also maintains that the manner in which the government proposed the tests should be conducted amounted to an invitation to corruption. These tests, he says, set up a form of “league tables” for schools, putting pressure on teachers to produce the highest scores.

This teachers can do by coaching learners, by “fiddling the figures” or by simply repeating the tests to gain better scores. And, here, says Bell, is the reason for Motshekga’s insistence on the admittedly flawed ANAs being imposed.

It has much to do with electoral politics rather than education.  At a time of growing disillusionment with the governing party and with local government elections looming, reports of an improvement in school results  could be seen as a vote winner.

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