{"id":430260,"date":"2020-09-01T09:16:19","date_gmt":"2020-09-01T07:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=430260"},"modified":"2020-09-01T09:20:07","modified_gmt":"2020-09-01T07:20:07","slug":"here-are-the-proposed-exam-changes-for-all-grades-at-south-african-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/430260\/here-are-the-proposed-exam-changes-for-all-grades-at-south-african-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Here are the proposed exam changes for all grades at South African schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Basic Education has detailed its plans to make up for lost teaching time and possible curriculum changes for the remainder of the 2020 school year.<\/p>\n<p>South Africa\u2019s school year has been drastically shortened due to the country\u2019s coronavirus lockdown with a number of students returning to school in September for the first time since the middle of March.<\/p>\n<p>In a parliamentary presentation last week, the department said that it has put together a framework for curriculum recovery post the Covid-19 lockdown.<\/p>\n<p>The framework proposed a revised school calendar, curriculum reorganisation and trimming, as well as the revision of assessment requirements.<\/p>\n<p>As part of this framework, the department has developed three different scenarios based on the available teaching time for the remainder of the year.<\/p>\n<p>These scenarios account for further schools shutdowns either at the national level or because schools are forced to close due to the infection of staff\/pupils.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Low<\/strong> <strong>road<\/strong> &#8211; Significant disruptions 60% and more of teaching hours lost;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Middle<\/strong> <strong>road<\/strong> &#8211; Moderate disruptions 30% \u2013 59% of teaching hours lost;<\/li>\n<li><strong>High<\/strong> <strong>road<\/strong> &#8211; Minimum\/No disruptions (less than 30% of teaching hours lost).<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The below calendar indicates how these different scenarios could play out in practice.<\/p>\n<p><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Subject-planning.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-430276 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Subject-planning.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"956\" height=\"537\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Subject-planning.png 1599w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Subject-planning-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Subject-planning-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Subject-planning-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Subject-planning-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Subject-planning-1200x675.png 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 956px) 100vw, 956px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Assessment changes for lower grades<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The presentation also outlines a number of proposed changes for the end of year assessments that are set to be conducted across a number of the lower grades.<\/p>\n<p>This includes proposed changes to bother the end-of-year exams as well as changes to how the mark from the school-based assessment (SBA) is calculated.<\/p>\n<p>These proposals have not been formally introduced and may be subject to change.<\/p>\n<p>The changes are outlined in more detail below:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The SBA for Foundation Phase (Grades R\u20133)<\/strong> &#8211; Will remain unchanged at 100%, however the final mark will be calculated from the assessment completed in terms 1, 3 and 4;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The SBA in Grades 4\u20139<\/strong> &#8211; Will be revised to count 80% of the final mark;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The end-of-year school-based test in Grades 4- 9<\/strong> &#8211; Will carry a weighting of 20%;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Reports<\/strong> &#8211; Will only be issued at the end of Term 3 and Term 4 based on summative and formative evidence.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Final exams for grade 10 and 11\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The department proposed the following changes for grade 10 and 11 examinations:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Final promotional examinations should be replaced with a formal final class test which is school-based;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Common tests or examinations, even at the district-level, should be discouraged;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>For promotional purposes, a ratio of 80:20 should be used (80% School-Based Assessment to 20% final class test);<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>In the case of Grade 11, the final class tests can be limited to the elective subjects, and examinations conducted only in the fundamental subjects namely: Mathematics\/Mathematical Literacy; Language of Learning and Teaching (LOLT) and Home language (HL);<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Life Orientation (although part of the fundamentals) could be assessed through a formal class test.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Final exams for grade 12<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Basic Education minister Angie Motshekga has <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/news\/matric-papers-wont-be-trimmed-says-motshekga\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reiterated<\/a> <\/strong>that there will be no &#8216;trimming&#8217; or concessions made for the final matric examinations, however the results are set to be released later than expected.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>All schools will write a trial examination from September and ending no later than the first week in October (max three weeks);<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Life Orientation Common Assessment Task to be completed on 19 October;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Final examinations from <strong>5 November to 15 December 2020<\/strong>;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Marking will be done from 4 January 2021 to 22 January 2021;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Ministerial announcement of results on 22 February 2021. Release by schools\/MEC announcements: 23 February 2021.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Next steps and catch-up in coming years<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The department said that it is working on a &#8216;capacity building programme&#8217; for school management teams to enable schools to <strong>exercise their autonomy<\/strong> in curriculum planning;<\/p>\n<p>It said that templates will also be sent to provinces to demonstrate what schools can realistically cover in 2020 and what they have to take over to 2021, 2022 and 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Other proposals for the end of the year include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dedicate the rest of 2020 to supporting Grade 12 learners for the NSC exams and to teaching the core competencies (Gr R-11) in preparation for learning post-2020.<\/li>\n<li>Reduce the scope of the final assessment for promotional purposes to align to the revised weighting (80%\/20%).<\/li>\n<li>Commence with a &#8216;competence-based curriculum&#8217; to increase the depth and to infuse active pedagogies and skills-based assessment practices.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/429602\/you-can-collect-smart-ids-and-passports-at-banks-again-but-only-at-these-branches\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">You can collect smart IDs and passports at banks again \u2013 but only at these branches<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Basic Education has detailed its plans to make up for lost teaching time and possible curriculum changes for the remainder of the 2020 school year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":407215,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-430260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430260"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":430306,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430260\/revisions\/430306"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}