Union rejoices as department opts to end annual assessment of pupils
The Department of Basic Education has caved in to pressure from the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu), abandoning the Annual National Assessment (ANA) for pupils. The assessments, which were introduced in 2011, have been at the centre of squabbles between the union and the department. The tests are standardised national numeracy and literacy assessments in the intermediate and foundation phases. Sadtu and other teacher unions have argued that, in their current form, the assessments were not beneficial to pupils. The unions also contended that writing the tests annually meant that schools were not given enough time to put in place intervention programmes to improve outcomes. In 2015, unions called for a boycott of the tests which were meant to assess more than 8.6-million pupils across the country. Earlier in 2016, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced that a task team set up to undertake the remodelling of ANAs had held regular meetings to finalise initia...
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