DA calls for mandatory competency tests for Matric markers
The DA wishes all 801 688 Grade 12 learners well as they begin their National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations today.
As always, the success or failure of these learners will be used as a barometer to determine how well our education system is performing and where interventions are needed most. It is therefore vital that we are able to accurately compare results of learners across different schools, social contexts and provincial education departments.
This exercise is very difficult in the present climate because there is no national standard to measure the competency of the 49 900 markers of the 258 NSC papers that will be written this year. The Western Cape is currently the only province that ensures matric exam makers are subject to competency tests before they are allowed to mark any papers.
Umalusi, the statutory body tasked with education quality assurance and certification, has previously expressed support for universal competency tests. Section 16(4)(d) of the General and Further Education and Training Quality Assurance Act is clear that Umalusi must assure the “quality of learner assessment at exit points.”
It is not clear whether Umalusi has taken any steps to introduce marker competency tests as a means to assure the quality of learner assessment. What is clear is that Minister Motshekga must act now to ensure that marker competency tests are implemented, even if this is resisted by the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU).
Indeed, Minister Motshekga has previously indicated that SADTU is the stumbling block to implementing marker competency tests. In a reply to a parliamentary question in 2013, Minister Motshekga said that she had not approved the policy for competency testing because “the major teacher union has opposed the administration of the competency test.”
The DA has written to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education, Nomalungelo Gina, to request that the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, urgently explains her current position on competency testing for Matric markers to the Committee.
We owe it to our learners to insist that a matric pass in one province, district and school is the same standard as that in every other. Every NSC learner must get the marks they deserve.
South Africa’s education system remains deeply unequal. It is an uncomfortable truth that the quality of a child’s education – 21 years after the end of Apartheid – is still determined by where they live and which schools they go to.
Our challenge is to bridge the education divide in our country through measures that help our poorest learners compete at the highest level. A step towards this is to ensure that every National Senior Certificate paper is marked according to the same standard.
Issued by Gavin Davis, DA Shadow Minister of Basic Education, 26 October 2015
