The IFP Youth Brigade rejects the recent confirmation from the Department of Basic Education (DBE) that no common examinations/tests will be administered for Grades 10 and 11, as published in a circular to all schools.
We remain cognisant of the fact that Covid-19 regulations have had adverse effects on the functioning of schools and have compromised valuable teaching and learning time in classrooms across the country. However, we firmly believe that the DBE should consider extending the school curriculum and calendar into early 2021.
The full curriculum must be completed to ensure that our learners are well prepared for matriculation, and that they are equipped with all the content contained in the syllabus for their respective grades.
We simply cannot ignore the fact that our country’s education system is unequal. Therefore, controlled, school-based tests in these grades will severely compromise learners who attend underprivileged, underfunded and broken schools in rural and peri-urban nodes.
The DBE’s decision to take the easy road on this pertinent matter – instead of focussing on the future of streamlining learners to be readied for college, TVETs, Universities and the world of work – is deeply worrying.
Learners who now face school-tests only, will be ill-prepared to take a major common national examination, such as the National Senior Certificate examination, if they are not ready to progress, based on their limited and current taught content.
We cannot allow the DBE to take any shortcuts on the quality and content of our Grades. This matter is about the future of our education system – we cannot stand by and watch as our learners’ educational future is being sabotaged. No learner should be pushed through to a new grade when the Department is aware that learners are ill-prepared for grade progression, and that they are destined to fail.
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Contact:
Mthokozisi Nxumalo, MP
IFP Youth Brigade National Chairperson
072 819 5153