SA education 'facing serious challenges'

2011-06-29 15:57

Johannesburg - The education sector faced "serious challenges", the ACDP said on Wednesday in reaction to the Annual National Assessment (ANA) results.

"ANA results show Grade One and Two children performing better than Grade Three and Four, which could be an indication that the focus on teaching and learning in the foundation phase... are beginning to pay off," African Christian Democratic Party MP Cheryllyn Dudley said in a statement.

"We are facing serious challenges in the education sector and for every day that schools are not working we are seriously disadvantaging young people and society as a whole."

But she said the party acknowledged the step to do the assessments was a key government achievement in improving education.

Only 12% of Grade Six pupils scored 50% or more for mathematics in a country-wide test earlier this year. The basic education department released the results on Tuesday.

The assessment of numeracy and literacy was conducted among six million so-called foundation phase (Grades One to Three) and intermediate phase (Grades Four to Six) pupils attending government schools.

The tests took place in February, after pupils had completed the previous year's grade work.

According to the document, Grade Six results for language - based on a sample of results from selected schools - show that as few as 15% of pupils scored more than 50%.

Among Grade Three pupils, only 17% scored more than 50% in their numeracy assessment, and 31% scored more than 50% in the literacy test.
 

- SAPA