The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) wishes learners in primary and secondary schools well with the Annual National Assessment (ANA) tests that started Tuesday 10 September.
Gauteng learners in Grades 1 to 6 and Grade 9, along with their peers across South Africa, are getting ready for the third ANA in literacy and maths, which will take place between the 10th and 13th of September. About 1½ million learners in 2 566 schools in Gauteng will write the tests.
The ANA will be administered in all public schools as well as to all Grades 3 and 6 learners in independent schools that receive a subsidy. A number of non-subsidised independent schools are writing on voluntary basis.
The aim of the standardised tests is to check whether learners in these grades are developing language and mathematics skills at the appropriate levels.
MEC for Education in Gauteng, Barbara Creecy, said: “These tests are useful in enabling us to target interventions at an early stage in the schooling of learners. They diagnose learning challenges and allow us to put remedial measures in place earlier, so that learners are better prepared to exit schooling after matric.”
“The results will also assist us in to improve the quality and intensity of interventions and support that district offices offer to schools.”
GDE has implemented the Gauteng Primary Language and Mathematics Strategy (GPLMS) to improve the achievement levels of learners in Grades 1 to 7 in all selected schools where performance needs to improve. The GPLMS aims to improve Literacy and Numeracy in priority primary schools and to ensure that learners can read and write, and that they have mastered basic mathematical concepts.
The project has integrated classroom lessons, assessment activities and homework tasks into a unified approach to learning, informed by the standards set for the ANAs. The GPLMS project is being implemented in schools by specially trained coaches who provide intensive classroom-based support to teachers. The teachers in the priority schools have also formed professional learning groups, where, with guidance from the coaches, they work together to identify and remedy common challenges and plan how best to deal with topics that learners find most difficult to master.
To improve learning in Grades 8 and 9, the Secondary School Improvement Programme broadcasts maths lessons via satellite into priority high schools. These lessons are broadcast into classrooms during the morning and are recorded so that they can be replayed by teachers as often as necessary. The lessons are taught by GDE maths specialists, who also make use of live broadcasts in the afternoons to train and prepare teachers for upcoming lessons. The programme has started in the first group of 30 schools and GDE plans to provide satellite reception capacity to all priority schools as soon as possible.
To assist schools to achieve the required standard, the GDE has provided common work schedules for Grade 9. Assessment guidelines and item banks have been distributed and teachers have been trained to use them effectively.
MEC Creecy believes that parents have an important role to play:
“Parents should assist their children to work through the exemplar materials that have been provided to them and should discuss the questions with their children to help them understand how best to answer. Parents should check that their children have completed the work in the workbooks and check that they can explain their answers.”
Feedback will be provided to parents on their children’s performance in the standardised tests. Parents should use the results check where they need to support their children’s learning. The feedback will also indicate to parents what they need to discuss with the school in order to agree on how best to improve their child’s performance.