Zille calls for 'full-scale audit' of matric results and marking
BASIC Education Minister Angie Motshekga needed to commission a "full-scale independent audit" of the 2013 matric results, and of the marking process, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille said on Tuesday.
Ms Motshekga on Monday night announced a sharp rise in the 2013 matric pass rate, to 78.2%, from 2012's 73.9% and a massive improvement on the pass rate of 60.6% achieved when she took over as minister in 2009. She touted it as an example of the Zuma administration's achievements since "we took over" in 2009.
Adding fuel to her fire, the African National Congress (ANC) said on Monday that the results reflected the ruling party's "transformative and decisive interventions in education" stemming from the commitment in 1994 to make education the ruling party's "apex priority".
But Ms Zille said the quality of marking could not be guaranteed, nor was it "adequately or comparatively standardised" across South Africa because exam scripts were not marked by a central authority, and markers were not tested for competency, subject knowledge or ability to interpret answers phrased differently from the exam memorandum, except in the Western Cape.
South Africa goes to the polls later in the year to elect a new government, and the ruling ANC and the DA - the largest opposition party - are squaring off, with the ANC battling several crises that could cost it votes, and the DA eager to win rule in a second province. The DA rules the Western Cape.
Department of Basic Education spokesman Terence Khala did not immediately respond to phone calls or e-mails.
Matric pass rate shoots past 75%
Ms Zille pointed to concern raised last year by Sizwe Mabizela, chairman of quality assurance council Umalusi, over the appointment of markers in some provinces, and that their appointment was subject to political and union pressure.
"Umalusi has repeatedly recommended that markers be tested for competency around the country. In its technical report on the 2012 (National Senior Certificate) examinations, it identified the lack of competence of markers as the first challenge to the reliability and quality of marking," she said. "It also explicitly recommended that competency tests should be used to appoint markers.
"However, the government failed to take heed of this recommendation, mainly as a result of obstinate resistance from the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu)."
During Umalusi's announcement that the results had been approved for release, Prof Mabizela warned that despite the setting and moderation of question papers having "stabilised", the quality of marking still posed a significant challenge in many subjects.
Those marking exams should take competency tests, as markers with limited knowledge tend to disadvantage pupils who produced innovative and originally responses to questions, he said.
Responding to the issue of competency testing, Sadtu general secretary Mugwena Maluleke dismissed the comments as "off the mark". Making political statements was beyond the Umalusi's mandate, he said.
Sadtu believed that the solution of competent markers should begin at the teaching level, with the competency of teachers in the classroom. Additional training should provided to teachers, beginning in grade 10, he said. Those looking for quality marking had the solution the wrong way around, as if you want a quality cake "you influence the ingredients (not a) baked cake".
"The point is, these teachers apply (to become markers)," he said.
http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/education/2014/01/07/zille-calls-for-full-scale-audit-of-matric-results-and-marking