In a desperate bid to claw back “substantial learning losses” suffered during the Covid-19 pandemic, 10,000 pupils in grades 4, 7 and 8 in the Western Cape will attend boot camps over Saturdays and school holidays.
The ambitious plan, among a range of interventions that the provincial education department is set to implement, will be unveiled at Hazendal Primary School in Cape Town on Thursday.
In a circular issued by Haroon Mahomed, the deputy director-general for curriculum and assessment management, dated May 3, schools were advised that the learning programme for grades 4, 7 and 8 would focus on maths and languages.
It will also include 2,000 selected teachers from these grades being pulled out of schools once every 10 days to receive teacher professional development.
According to the circular, the criteria for the selection of these teachers and pupils were based on the 2022 systemic test results for maths and languages.
Mahomed stated that the learning losses have been confirmed by numerous global and local reports, including one by Stellenbosch researcher Prof Martin Gustafsson and Carol Nuga Deliwe from the department of basic education.
The Western Cape education department’s own systemic diagnostic results report for, especially, grades 6 and 9 in 2022 also confirmed the learning losses experienced by pupils.
The pass percentage in languages in grade 6 dropped from 39.4% in 2021 to 36.1% last year, while the pass percentage in maths in grade 9 dropped from 21.6% to 18.8%.
“To mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on learning and teaching, the department is implementing a three-year curriculum recovery programme called ‘Back on Track’,” the circular reads.
They are just ‘feel-good’ interventions that are a drain on the fiscus, an unnecessary pressure for pupils and exhausting for teachers.
— Professor Loyiso Jita
The interventions will also include providing support to grade 10 pupils at 140 schools in maths, physical sciences, life sciences, accounting, business studies and economics during Saturday classes.
Teachers from these schools will attend biweekly “Just in Time” teacher development sessions in these subjects.
In grade 12, targeted support will be provided to progressed pupils (those pushed into grade 12 after failing grade 11 for the second time) and those at risk in a number of subjects, including English home language, Afrikaans home language, maths, maths literacy, physical science, accounting, business studies and economics.
Reaction to the plan has been varied.
Describing the interventions as “ill-informed and misguided”, Prof Loyiso Jita, dean of the education faculty at the University of the Free State, said the only good thing about it was the fact that Western Cape “recognises the learning losses resulting from Covid-19”.
“The intervention seeks to reproduce what the education system has always done with grade 12s, where we create a parallel schooling system of afternoon, evening, weekend and holiday classes to force learning through short-term, pressurised, non-sustainable and expensive interventions.”
He said the parallel “cram sessions” are not supported by learning theories or “what we know about good pedagogy”.
“They are just ‘feel-good’ interventions that are a drain on the fiscus, an unnecessary pressure for pupils and exhausting for teachers.
“There are better ways to intervene over the entire period of 12 years of schooling than to reproduce the deceptive practices we have entrenched for the grade 12 class to all these other pupils.”
He said he would not recommend other provinces follow Western Cape’s example.
University of KwaZulu-Natal academic Prof Labby Ramrathan, however, said that from the perspective of intervention and planning for support, “it is an extremely good intervention”.
“There are, however, implementation challenges that need to identified and addressed, including pupils’ attendances at these support sessions and the specific support in relation to what pupils need as opposed to what the department wants to provide.”
Said Ramrathan: “It would be great for other provinces to follow.”
Prof Elbie Henning from the University of Johannesburg commended the Western Cape education department on its plan saying it was “timely and feasible”.
Western Cape education department spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said the department's circular was “introductory and doesn’t cover everything”.
“We will launch the programme on Thursday morning, and will have a statement and presentation.”
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