From the news desk

Schools refuse to administer ANAs

Share this article

Many schools are defiantly refusing to implement the Annual National Assessment (ANA) examinations, despite The Department of Basic Education (DBE) giving schools until Friday 4th December by which to administer the tests.

Government has been at loggerheads with teacher unions over the ANAs, with the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) and National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) amongst those taking a stance against the tests.

From the perspective of Brian Isaacs, principal of South Peninsula High and secretary of the Progressive Principals Association, the issue was that the ANA’s bore no difference to a student’s final examination results.

“These tests are not taken into consideration for your promotion from one grade to the next, with the result that you can’t verify that teachers and students are taking these exams seriously,” he explained.

Isaacs said the view amongst educators, at least within his own school, was that any national examination need be held at the end of the academic year and have some bearing on the final results of students.

Another area of concern was that teachers were not being informed how papers would be set up, with some questions not being covered within subject curriculums.

“It is one of those illogical examinations, which includes the Western Cape diagnostic tests which were written in September or October. The DA in the province boasts about its diagnostic test which is actually also a waste of time. I think there’s also mobilisation to have those tests done away with,” he claimed.

Isaacs accused both provincial and national government of applying “illogical reasoning” when it came to management of the basic education sector.

“That is why we have this present situation. Agreements are made between the teacher unions and the department not to have the exams, and then the department reconsiders and says that exams will be written,” he said.

Isaacs vowed that South Peninsula High would not be administering the ANAs as they viewed the exams as “illogical”.

The DA has called on the department to take action against 400 000 teachers who have refused to administer the exam. VOC


Share this article

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

WhatsApp WhatsApp us
Wait a sec, saving restore vars.