SGBs support decision on ANAs

Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshegka announced last week that the ANAs will take place from the 1st to the 4th of December this year.

It came a few days after it was agreed with unions that the tests would be postponed to next year.

The department's Troy Martens says Motshekga met with the Council of Education Ministers, governing bodies and parent organisations yesterday.

''It's their children that we're talking about here. The minister took them through a presentation on what has transpired with the postponement of the Annual National Assessments and the reasons behind administering the assessment from the 1st to the 4th of December,'' she said.

Education analyst Professor Kobus Maree of the University of Pretoria, who believes the ANA is not in best interest of the country, says teacher unions and the department should sit together until they reach a consensus on the matter.

''This tug-of-war between the labour unions and the Education Department and this kind of inconsistent decision-making - [they are writing, then postponements and then writing again]; Entities like the education department should not be [engaging] in this kind of thing.

''We should have consistent decision-making. The ANA tests are not achieving the outcome that we were hoping for,'' he said.

In a joint statement yesterday, five teacher unions Sadtu, Naptosa, Peu, SAOU and Natu said they were disappointed that the department had gone back on the agreement reached earlier that the tests would be postponed. 

This would allow a joint task team looked into the shortcomings of the assessment in its current form and remodel it.

(File photo)