Stakeholders’ Support for Large Scale Assessment in Schools: A Case of Annual National Assessment (ANA) in South African Schools

Abstract

Assessment is a crucial aspect of teaching and learning; it includes various means of assessing what learners could reproduce as product of learning. Annual National Assessment (ANA) is a large scale assessment with the sole aim of measuring learners’ achievement, growth and progress. Since the introduction and implementation of ANA in 2010, the analysis of the results from 2011 to 2014 has shown very little improvement in learner performance. This qualitative study sought to ascertain how stakeholders supported standardised testing to overcome its limitations, and can be used to improve teaching and learning in South African schools. The theoretical framework that underpins this study is the Hard Accountability Model. Themes were generated from the collected data from ten English teachers, ten Mathematics and ten Heads of Departments from ten grade six primary schools in King Cethswayo district, Kwa-Zulu Natal Province of South Africa. Findings revealed that stakeholders did not support adequately ANA to fulfil its purpose in schools. The study also indicated inadequate teacher development programmes to regularly capacitate teachers on how to improve ANA results. The study therefore recommended that the Department of Basic Education should ensure that teacher developmental programmes are conducted while curriculum advisors and School Management Teams should strengthen their supervision and monitoring in schools.