Thousands of kids to repeat year because ‘automatic progression’ policy delayed

Thousands of pupils who failed grades 1 to 3 have been denied the chance of being pushed through next year because of government’s delay in implementing the “automatic progression” policy.

Most pupils would have received their report cards on Tuesday.

Basic education director-general Mathanzima Mweli told parliament on November 17 that the Council of Education Ministers (CEM) took a decision last year not to allow pupils in the foundation phase to repeat any longer.

The council comprises the nine education MECs and basic education minister Angie Motshekga.

Mweli told MPs the major problem was not the dropout rate, but the high failure and repetition rates in the different grades.

“There are instances where you get up to a 30% failure rate in Grade 1. In many countries failure and repetition is not allowed any longer at any level of schooling,” he said.

This year, primary schools used the existing progression and promotion policies, while they await the implementation of the new “automatic progression” policy.

A Cape Town mother of a seven-year-old who failed Grade 1 said she was deeply disappointed as she believed that her son should have been progressed to Grade 2.

“I feel that he’s ready for Grade 2. I don’t feel it’s fair to keep him behind in Grade 1.”

She said her older son, who is now in Grade 3, is still teased and mocked by his cousins and former classmates for failing Grade 1.

The foundation phase, especially Grade 1, is so critically important for a learner’s future in education that automatic progression should not even be a consideration.

—  Paul Colditz, school governor

“It affected him badly. Until today, he says: ‘Mommy, I did well; look here I passed.’ It looks like he’s trying to prove to me he knows his work.”

She said that her younger son “really wants to go to Grade 2”.

“He can say almost all his words and he’s not really struggling. If a child is failed in the first year of his schooling, it can be really devastating.”

The mother has lodged an appeal with the Western Cape education department requesting that he progress to the next grade.

“The school said they will have an answer for me by the beginning of next year.”

Paul Colditz, a school governor, said he was not in favour of the new policy because “the foundation phase, especially Grade 1, is so critically important for a learner’s future in education that automatic progression should not even be a consideration”.

He said that if a learner does not have a solid foundation, he or she will feel the pain in later grades. 

“Foundation phase teachers should be able to assess which learners will be able to catch up in the next year, and which learners would benefit from more exposure to the critical skills required for progression.

“We’re seeing a significant drop out rate in later years, because even pre-Covid learners did not acquire those skills that would make secondary school education and eventually matric much more achievable for them.”

Doug Shead, who retired this week as headmaster of King Edward VII Preparatory in Johannesburg, said they were forced to progress two of the six Grade 1 pupils who had been recommended to repeat the same grade next year after their parents appealed to Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi.

“One of the two boy’s parent has objected three times in a row and the boy has been progressed each time.”

Two Grade 2 boys and three Grade 3 boys will repeat the grade next year.

“I will be grateful if they scrapped the [impending] ‘automatic progression’ policy. The older they become, the more difficult it becomes to rectify the issues that they present in the foundation phase. It’s a potential disaster.”

Shead said the affected boys’ parents were contacted and the pupils’ books were scrutinised by the teachers’ colleagues from the grades above and below.

“We start talking to the parents the moment we think that there’s a problem. We have regular meetings and we discuss the options. Interventions are initiated and teachers visit those boys to check that their concepts are solid.”

He said he got a “full page” Christmas card from a pupil who had to repeat Grade 2 last year.

“He made it on his own and has passed this year,” he said.

Prof Mary Metcalfe, a senior research associate at the University of Johannesburg, said the intention of the CEM was clear that this could only be implemented when the system was ready.  

“The policy intention cannot be implemented until teachers in the grades into which the learners would be promoted can manage the education challenges of the increased diversity. This includes having the necessary resources, appropriate training and class sizes that are manageable.”

She said the intention to support automatic promotion in the foundation phase should not be implemented until the system can support pupils who have been “progressed”.

“I would say that the system has had an enormous amount to deal with in the last year and that this would understandably be on the back burner.”

Basic education department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga told Sunday Times Daily the Heads of Education Departments Committee (HEDCOM) had advised that “we need to prepare the system first before we could implement automatic progression”.

HEDCOM comprises the director-general of basic education and the deputy directors-general, as well as the heads of the provincial education departments.

“Automatic progression has not yet been implemented. Promotion and progression in the foundation phase should follow the prescripts of the national policy,” he said.

Western Cape education spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said if a parent is unhappy with the decision to retain their child in a certain grade, an appeal process can be followed through the district office.