By More Matshediso
BLOEMFONTEIN – MEC for Department of Education Free Sate Tate Makgoeon Thursday, September 6 said the department is ready for this year’s Annual National Assessment (ANA) and grade 12 examinations.
A total 294 457 learners from grades 1 to 6 and 9 will write the ANA in the Free State from Tuesday, September 18 to Friday, September 21. The tests will evaluate learners’ aptitude in literacy and numeracy.
“To be exact, we are left with 45 days before the seniorexams will be written in this country. We wish the 24 721 learners who will be writing the senior exams the best of luck.
We are also setting a very ambitious target of 80 percent for ourselves since we are in the same class with the Gauteng Province.
“We want to increase the Bachelors pass rate, which is required at universities for our learners to be admitted because learners who go to Universities are not accepted with their 30 percent average. They must obtain 50 percent upwards in four subjects and must not have below 30 percent in other subjects,” Makgoe said.
Makgoe said: “We took Mathematics teachers to workshops and retrained them to enhance their teaching methods. If the school is under performing, what is the principal doing as the CEO of the school is our main concern.”
Makgoe said 359 Primary School learners wrote common tests and examinations for Mathematics, English and Home languages in March and June.
“The common question examination method was a way of avoiding unfair assessment in Primary Schools after many schools claimed that a different set of tests and examinations in their various schools was unfair to learners.”
Makgoe said that learners from grade one to nine should be stopped from using calculators and use the “grey matter” between their ears, “that’s the most important calculator”, he added.
The MEC Makgoe said every school should tell the department how many learners were doing well and how many weren’t. The schools should also indicate what they would do to help the underperforming learners.
Dishing out tips for exams, MEC Makgoe said: “Children do not know how to approach questions. We want to teach them that the examiner wants to trick them so they should not spend 30 minutes on a five-mark question.”
The message from the MEC to grade 12 learners was: “You must hlasela this exam, you only write matric once in your life and the outcomes thereof determine your future. Education is a catalyst for a better life for all,” he said.