Cape Town - The Western Cape Department of Education (WCED) has announced that schools across the province will have the option to reintroduce exam practices for Grade 10 and 11 learners.
In a statement, the department said it would be launching a campaign #BackOnTrack, ahead of the school calendar’s term 3, in support of schools that wanted to help learners rebuild their exam-writing skills lost during the Covid-19 pandemic.
WCED MEC David Maynier said a minute was sent to schools on September 12, 2022, advising of the option to help learners get #BackOnTrack.
Maynier said: “About two weeks ago, we sent out a minute to our schools, offering them the option to adapt their end-of-year assessments format to an examination format where they can ask a variety of questions, instead of continuing with the amended programme of assessment."
The amended programme of assessment was designed to allow for more teaching and learning time in response to time lost because of the Covid-19 pandemic disruptions, and proposed one 2-hour controlled test per content subject as the end-of-year assessment.
“Schools reverting to the examination format would allow for more in-depth testing and practice in answering such questions under examination-controlled conditions so that learners, are prepared for future exams.
“For the past two years, Grade 10 and 11 learners have not written full-scale exams,” Maynier said.
“We cannot simply wait until matric to help these learners get #BackOnTrack, the work starts in earlier grades to ensure that they are in the best possible position to succeed in their National Senior Certificate exams.”
Maynier said the minute does not change the weighting of tests or the content to be covered to ensure that fair assessments were conducted.
“Schools that want to take up this option to adapt the format of the end-of-year assessment must apply to their district office for approval before the end of the third term,” he said.
This #BackOnTrack intervention by the department follows an earlier announcement stating that at the start of the third term, foundation phase learners would be required to spend more time on reading and maths at school each week to reverse learning losses in Grades 1 to 3.
“Let us all work together to reverse the learning losses caused by the pandemic and to make sure our children get #BackOnTrack,” Maynier said.