Experts divided as pupils to get 5% extra marks to stop them failing

The department of basic education has asked schools to award extra marks to pupils who fail some subjects in grades 4 to 9 in a bid to prevent a high number of them from repeating the same grade next year.

Teachers have been authorised to give pupils, at the end of this year, up to 5% more in a maximum of three subjects they failed if it will help them to meet the pass requirements. 

This arrangement is part of the department’s “special condonation dispensation” for 2020.

According to a circular dated November 19 and signed by basic education department director-general Mathanzima Mweli, the mark adjustment has been increased to 5% from 2% last year “to compensate for possible learning losses that have occurred” due to Covid-19 disruptions.

The circular stated that “mark adjustments and condonations are used as special dispensations to offset potential high retention of learners in an academic year”.

If a pupil meets all the other promotion requirements, but fails to achieve a 40% pass mark in maths, which is a compulsory subject, the pupil must be condoned in this subject.

“This implies that the maths mark is condoned and the learner must be promoted to the next grade, if all other pass requirements are met,” the circular stated.

It is compulsory for pupils to achieve a minimum of 40% in maths to be promoted to the next grade.

“Grade 9 learners who obtain a condonation in maths with a mark of below 30% after the condonation is approved have the option of continuing with maths in grade 10.”

They may also opt to study maths literacy in grade 10.

For this year, school-based tests carrying a reduced weighting of 20% will replace the end-of--year exams for grades 4 to 9 pupils. 

Meanwhile, in a separate development, the department has withdrawn a circular issued earlier this year that granted permission to schools to reduce the number of subjects offered to pupils in grades 7 to 9 by two — from nine to seven.

Schools will offer all nine subjects next year.

It also withdrew a dispensation allowing teachers in grades R to 3 to integrate the components of life skills into languages to reduce the number of subjects being taught.

“In 2021, schools will offer life skills as a stand-alone subject,” the circular stated.

Reacting to the special condonation dispensation, Prof Ursula Hoadley, from the faculty of education at the University of Cape Town (UCT), said she did not see the logic in increasing the adjustment mark from 2% to 5%.

“The reason given [by the department] is to compensate for learning losses, but schools were already required to address this by only assessing what was taught (which in the majority of schools was a very small proportion of the normal curriculum) and by having a much greater proportion of the mark allocated to School-Based Assessments (as opposed to exams).”

The reason given by the department is to compensate for learning losses, but schools were already required to address this by only assessing what was taught.

—  Prof Ursula Hoadley, University of Cape Town

She said the problem going into 2021 “is going to be very high transition rates into the next grades”.

“To put it simply: many more learners are going to pass this year than in previous years, given a reduction in content coverage, assessment and externally moderated assessments.”

Hoadley said the difficulty was going to be overly large classes, especially in grades 5, 10 and 11, due to pupils progressing from the prior grade, whereas in normal years they would have repeated.

“It is also going to lead to much greater heterogeneity in classes, making teachers’ work that much more difficult, especially in trying to reach the number of underprepared students in their classrooms who, in a normal year, may have stayed in the previous grade.”

But Prof Labby Ramrathan, from the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s (UKZN) school of education, said “condonations would be an appropriate strategy” because of this year’s disruptions.

“It’s in sync with the kind of mood and understanding of this current context. They [pupils] will have sufficient opportunities to cover during the rest of their grades.”

Prof Mary Metcalfe, a senior research associate at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), who “wholeheartedly” supported the department’s condonation policy, said “we need to recognise [that] the catch-up of learning from the loss of learning time in 2020 will take place over several years”.

“Learners must be supported in this, over the time frame, in an educational atmosphere which minimises stress and which takes into account the very different environments in which learning was possible — or impossible — at home.”

She said teachers, as professionals, need the flexibility to make promotion decisions that are in the best interests of pupils.

“They are best placed to judge if the learning context of the subsequent grade will be able to support them.”