Still too many school dunces

Asked to punctuate the sentence "When is my brothers birthday", a Grade 3 pupil answered: "When is my Brothers birthday".

Asked for the value of the 4 in the number 367049215, a Grade 6 pupil answered: 10 thousand.

These are some of the examples given in a diagnostic report compiled by the Department of Basic Education summarising pupils' performance in last year's national assessment tests.

The report uses samples of tests for Grades 3, 6 and 9 to identify the weaknesses and strengths of pupils in reading, writing and maths.

"Many pupils cannot read with understanding; they write sentences and words that are completely incoherent and they struggle to spell frequently used words," the report says.

The report identifies strengths in maths as pupils' ability to do "simple addition and subtraction of whole numbers".

The results of last year's assessments were appalling. The average results for Grade 3 were 52% for literacy and 41% for numeracy. The Grade 9 numeracy result was 13% on average.

Only 34% of Grade 6 pupils scored 30% or more for numeracy.

The report advises teachers to ensure that pupils read often, to use wall charts that reinforce classwork and to use objects when teaching maths, such as a clock when teaching pupils to tell the time.

Teachers are urged to cut up an apple in order to teach pupils that a half is bigger than a quarter, or to use containers of different sizes when teaching measurements.

The report identifies an inability among Grade 6 and Grade 9 pupils to think abstractly.

"The observation that pupils from Grade 3 up to Grade 9 tend to perform better when given visual cues requires special attention because, as pupils progress, they need to develop thinking skills to handle abstract ideas and not only depend on visual [cues] to solve problems."

Elizabeth Henning, education professor at the University of Johannesburg, said: "If I had all the money spent on the countrywide national assessment tests I would use it to train teachers.

"Teachers need comprehensive training, not simple lists of what to do."

But Wits University education expert Graeme Bloch said the simple tips for teachers, such as making sure pupils had dictionaries, or using posters to summarise schoolwork, were important.

"These obvious things have to be said. The report is depressing but things are slowly improving."