Chairperson’s Message2 CEO’s Message4 Organisational Report6 Corporate Governance14 Finances16 Guild Hall 5 Anerley Road, Parktown Johannesburg 2193 PO Box 875, Highlands North, 2037 Tel: 011 483 9700 Email: assess@ieb.co.za Website: www.ieb.co.za Design by: Gingermoon Creative Studio © 2019 Independent Examinations Board. Reproduction of the IEB Annual Report in whole or in part without written permission from the IEB or the publishers is strictly prohibited. Great care has been taken in preparation of the articles. The editor and publishers therefore cannot accept responsibility for any errors which may inadvertently have occurred. The opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and/or persons interviewed, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editor, publisher or the IEB.We live in a challenging part of the world. There are few countries which bring together and have concentrated within them the range of complex things which make us human as we here in South Africa do. I have elsewhere, and possibly even in an earlier Chairperson’s message, described South Africa as a ‘global ontological hotspot’. Big words. What do they mean? Ontological refers to those features we have as a species which set us apart from other living creatures – our capacity, in the main, to make meaning, to ask questions about our existence and our place in the world. The distinctiveness of South Africa is that it provokes questions of the meaning of being human from multiple angles and perspectives. Humans here come to the question of their being – their ontologies – from the differences of race, class, sex, sexuality, language, religion, location, and countless other things which make them different, in a way which one can only describe as bewildering. For many South Africans this complexity is oppressive. This country is too much, they say. Their instinct is to flee into the self-enclosed privacy of their homes, or, and this is a hard thing, to the perceived safer climes of the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Equally many South Africans see the challenge in more positive terms. They see the country as a social laboratory for the rest of the world, as a place where the big questions of how the world secures the future for its children - the questions of social, political and economic equality, sustainability and climate change – are being faced directly. Why do I raise this? It has everything to do with thinking about how our schools respond to the challenge of being here in this part of the world, and not seeing themselves as satellites or outposts of schools elsewhere, either the schools of the so-called old world - England in the main, or those of the new world – the schools of Singapore, South Korea or Taiwan. The issue that our schools are having to confront is that of how to produce young people who are fully equipped to deal with the ontological challenge South Africa presents to them. When they emerge from our schools what capacities do they have? How do they demonstrate the privilege of having lived in this laboratory? Are they able to take their achievements in mathematics and physics – and long may those continue – and to understand how these, as affirmations of their best human attributes, to think, demand expression in the calculation and analysis of the measurement of living realities, the realities of inequality, the apportionment of dignity to one another, and, almost most profoundly of all, the measurement of one’s own sense of worth in relation to others? We are trying really hard in the IEB to be an assessment agency that foregrounds in everything we do, that hard task of building deep education. We are in this sense, and I say this acknowledging the hubris and conceit, amongst our global peers, different. We are playing a leadership role. We can see the innovations coming out of the assessment environment and are willing to learn, but we would like to think that in the midst of all of that – as the technology available dazzles – we see, also, the ontological urgency. We are trying to keep our eyes on the prize of producing young people who will understand where they are in this time in which we find ourselves and know, as they come to the university and the world of work, what they need to be looking out for, for both themselves and the world around them. Holding us to this commitment are our staff at the IEB to whom I am eternally grateful, led by the insight and resilience of Anne Oberholzer. Anne has been with us through our highs and lows and has led us with passion. The IEB has an extraordinary Board, individuals not greatly in the public eye but people who have chosen to work in and with the challenges of the South African laboratory. No board fees, no material incentives. And yet, there they are. They come to meetings and give of their best. Every time. Even as we have, this past year, had to deal with big challenges. My deep thanks to them. Professor Crain Soudien, Chairman of the Board, June 2019The theme for this year’s Annual Report is responsiveness and responsibility. Educational assessment serves many masters (and mistresses) and as such is fraught. The challenge for those who work in educational assessment is to respond to the multitude of individual needs in a responsible way. The IEB’s training programs respond directly to needs of teachers, facilitators and education managers. Every year there are new courses and workshops that respond to current and emerging trends in education, providing participants with the information and as appropriate, the skills they need to engage meaningfully with the “new”. Teachers constantly ask for assistance with managing the diversity of languages in a classroom, the complexities of difficult discussions in the classroom of race, religion, morality and politics in a responsible manner. The year 2018 saw an abundance of workshops and conferences for teachers and adult education facilitators, responding directly to their expressed needs. Our own research on international trends and developments in educational assessment informs new initiatives in response to expressed interest. 2018 saw an in-depth exploration, both desk-top research and qualitative investigation with interested schools into project based learning (PBL). PBL is a child-centred pedagogy that capitalises on the innate curiosity of young learners. Its focus is on learners investigating a complex, real-life question or challenge. Through the experience they come to understand that one challenging question has a multitude of related aspects which all need consideration. In this approach, learners experience traditional discipline-based knowledge, concepts and skills in a real- life problem. They also experience crucial life challenges - dealing with competing needs, integrating knowledge across disciplines, ethical considerations, dealing with financial and social impacts. Possibly one of the most essential realisations is that challenging problems inevitably have protagonists with opposing views and that solutions are reached through negotiating the complexities of these opposing viewpoints. The focus of the IEB’s initiative is valid and reliable assessment in a multifaceted learning experience. 2019 will see the extension of this project and a sharing of the insights from the research phase. Developments in technology cannot be ignored and where an opportunity presents itself, the IEB has harnessed it to ensure valid and indeed, reliable assessment. Learning discussions globally emphasise collaboration in solving problems to address the needs of societies. The IEB’s Collaborative Problem Solving project was conceptualised around the use of technology to engage learners from different schools, who did not know each other, electronically in working together to solve an intractable global problem with social impact. The use of technology enabled engagement between learners who, because they did not know each other or the schools from which each of them came, were free from any unconscious bias during their collaboration. This project will continue in 2020 when the technological platform has been refined to accommodate suggestions for improvement from participants. In examinations, issues of reliability are paramount. Hence the security of examination material and the integrity of conduct are critical. The IEB has employed 3 technological innovations to address these challenges. The IEB has not done this because we have any suspicion that our examination panels or educational institutions aligned to the IEB The IEB is a Proudly South African, non-profit educational assessment organisation of the 21st century. It is accredited by the QCTO, Umalusi and the ETDP-SETA. It is a non-government and public benefit organisation that is self-sustaining through fees it charges for its services. Our directors on the Board are not remunerated for their services and we certainly have no financial share-holders. We view ourselves as a public service organisation insofar as we work in the public domain, for the public good. A key driver of the organisation is support for the education system of our country, and indeed our sub-region and continent. We believe that the IEB is not just an organisation in Africa, but rather an African organisation dedicated to building Africa, the well-being of the people and the critical project that we call education. We believe it is the Africa-ness of the sons and daughters of our land, that will build the proud and successful nation that understands, respects and appreciates our diversity; that understands that to overcome our painful past, we must work together to build our country into one free of the insidious bonds of colonialism, the immorality of discrimination and the harmfulness of division. Most importantly we are an educational institution founded on the key values of integrity, respect and quality service. Randy Bennett, the Norman O. Frederiksen Chair in Assessment Innovation at the Educational Testing Service (ETS) in the United States, noted the importance of responsiveness and responsibility in the work of assessment bodies and examination boards: Make no mistake: if ETS succeeds in being responsive without being responsible, or in being responsible without being responsive, it will have failed. ETS, and kindred organisations, must do both. Doing both is what it means to be a non-profit educational measurement organisation in the 21st century. (IAEA, 2008)do not abide by the rules and regulations that govern the IEB examinations. We have implemented these systems so that any questions about the integrity of the systems can be answered using evidence. The electronic key system, deployed in all IEB examination centres, controls the time when examination question papers can be opened and the time by when answer scripts must be secured for return to the IEB. The audio and visual monitoring system through which all examination sessions can be viewed in real-time and are recorded to enable reference should any questions be raised afterwards, has been rolled out to the vast majority of IEB examination centres. The electronic Exam Authoring System enables members of the examining panel as well as the external moderator to access examination papers during the development phase without having any hardcopies available to be accessed by unauthorised persons. It also reduces the very real risk of hi-jacking of vehicles in which examination question papers may be couriered. Again I am sad to say that the IEB has only been able to respond minimally to the needs of adult learners. The floundering economy and the competing financial demands on the state fiscus between adult education provisioning and university costs, have both contributed significantly to the decline in funding for adult learning. Their need to access meaningful learning has seemingly been neglected while public funding is directed to the tertiary education sector and industry reduces its expenditure on skills development to focus on core training directly related to the work of the business. Again it is the marginalised who are less vocal in their demands that suffer from a reduction in their opportunities. The IEB has continued to champion the urgent implementation of the National Senior Certificate for Adults (NASCA), thereby providing a viable route to important vocations such as nursing, policing and social work, as well as established technical occupations such as electronics and computing. Our responsibility is to ensure that this sector of our population does not remain the societal waif – it is a national responsibility and as such we in this country all have a significant role to play. In 2018 the IEB collaborated with the Department of Social Development to track “poor and vulnerable” learners through the education system. Some 753 of these learners were part of the 2018 IEB National Senior Certificate cohort of full-time learners – all passed with 580 of them achieving a pass with entry to bachelor degree studies. These are children who are beneficiaries of social grants from the state. A number of schools registered to write the NSC with the IEB provide bursaries for promising students; in some instances, companies sponsor children of their employees to attend a school aligned to the IEB; in other instances, someone else e.g. a charity, a social or family benefactor provides the necessary support. The IEB provides fee concessions to schools that have bursary students. This has been such a rewarding collaboration in that it has shown the importance of these social grants in achieving very positive learning outcomes for vulnerable children. The IEB will continue to support this project. It is my pleasure once again to acknowledge the staff of the IEB that continually gives of their best to serve our education system. The Board under the leadership of Professor Soudien has once again led the organisation prudently and sensibly, constantly reminding us of the responsibility we have to respond to the needs of learners – both adult and in schools – teachers, facilitators and education managers, in a courteous and mindful manner. Finally on behalf of the Board and staff at the IEB, I thank the teaching institutions for the confidence they have shown in selecting the IEB as their assessment body of choice. Anne Oberholzer - CEO “Freedom can only occur through education” Friederich SchillerIt is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change – Charles Darwin The IEB has responded to these pressures as well as prompting factors in our educational world. The innovative projects in assessment that took place during 2018 were in response to robust, exciting discussions between the IEB assessment specialists and various gatherings of teachers about what constitutes relevant education. These engagements opened up an awareness of the kinds of skills that might be required in a world we can hardly imagine yet, premised on developing people who are ‘responsive to change’. Our key interest was in an exploration of how learners might engage appropriately with seemingly intractable problems, both global and local, and how their engagements might be assessed effectively. The current generation of learners in our schools are uniquely different from any previous generation. They are living in a world of constant change where knowledge is growing at an unprecedented rate. Education systems around the globe are tasked with adequately preparing these learners for a future where, on a global scale, uncertainty is the only constant. If we are to be responsive to the need for our learners to be globally connected South African citizens, we need to work within a globally relevant educational framework. The Department of Basic Education in South Africa recently adopted the UNESCO – IBE Competence Framework. This is a global initiative for schooling, which seeks to align curriculum with competencies that prepare learners for a future of uncertainty and constant change, in an era driven by digital technologies. The National Development Plan 2030 (NDP) aims to ensure that all South Africans attain a decent standard of living through the elimination of poverty and reduction of inequality. The NDP is aligned with both the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African Agenda 2063 that promote peace, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. All four of these frameworks target Public Good. The educational community needs to work within this local and global context to equip our learners with the essential skills they require to actively contribute to society. The IEB is cognisant of the influence that assessment tasks exert on instructional practices. Our Intentional Educational Beliefs state that through our assessments we are motivated to develop learners who are: critical users of information; ethical reasoners; problem solvers; creative and reflective thinkers; lifelong learners; society members respectful of diversity, particularly in the Southern African context; and active citizens who are committed to upholding the principles of the South African Constitution and the wellbeing of all people. This dynamic local and global context challenges the traditional methodologies used by teachers in their classrooms. They are being asked to shift their teaching, learning and assessment practices to provide their learners with meaningful opportunities which allow them to develop these critical skills, intentionally and explicitly. As children, many of us spent countless happy hours in the company of awe-inspiring, wonderfully imaginative Walt Disney films. We were unaware at the time of one of his more serious observations and little did we realise its enormous relevance for the work of the IEB: Times and conditions change so rapidly that we must keep our aim constantly focused on the future. As an organization, the IEB has to be future-focused in order to ensure that what we do, serves the children of today well. After all, they will be the leaders in our world in the future and as such, will make decisions on behalf of us, the leaders of today! Hence it is incumbent on us to be mindful of their needs as leaders and citizens of the future – their knowledge base, their skills and attitudes. Finally we are bound by the responsibility of our vocation to respond by absorbing these requirements into our work as an assessment body. During the 2018/2019 financial year, political and economic insecurities in our country placed an enormous strain on the independent sector of education, both schooling and adult education. Independent schools generally attract learners from middle to higher income homes whose parents are often professionals or skilled technicians and administrators. When they no longer see a future for their children or feel threatened by retrenchment, they lose hope and see emigration as the only option. According to FNB’s Q1 data, emigration as a reason for selling has been increasing over the past few years, climbing from 4.6% of all sellers in 2016, to 7.4% in 2018. When citizens emigrate they naturally take their children with them affecting directly the pool from which independent schools draw their learners. Very worrying is the number of teachers who see the need to emigrate and have left and are leaving the country as developed countries make every effort to attract their skills. In November 2018 it was reported that New Zealand is facing a major teacher shortage. At least 850 new teaching staff would be needed to guarantee that all primary and secondary school children have a teacher in 2019. The funding for adult education and training has been substantially reduced over the past five years or so as demands from the tertiary education sector erode the funds earmarked for this sector. The intention of these funds was to enable the marginalized adults who lack formal schooling and qualifications, to access formal education and qualifications in order to join the formally employed as working adults, actively contributing to the economy of the country. Despite these challenges, the IEB remains committed to offering quality and innovative services to all whom it serves.With the intention of providing support to teachers in making this transition and building communities of practice, the IEB, in 2018, introduced two learning experiences in its schools, namely, Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) for secondary school learners and Project Based Learning (PBL) for primary school learners. In 2018, both of these initiatives were anchored in the driving question: What’s Worth Fighting For? They used the NDP and SDGs as a point of reference to solve real–life problems using essential skills and competencies. They called for teachers to explore and engage in learning spaces that are learner-centred, collaborative and process driven. They required assessment AS learning, and different ways of recording and reporting. Collaborative Problem Solving In the CPS experience learners had to work collaboratively to resolve complex problems that required extraordinary problem-solving skills – so-called ‘wicked’ problems. They were challenged to apply their ingenuity and determination to develop a solution to a ‘wicked’ problem that falls within the NDP goals. In the first part of the experience learners had to identify a NDP goal of their choice and a school or community (context) that was currently not making progress towards this particular goal. They then had to define a specific problem to focus on in that context and develop a workable solution which could be achieved by 2030. The solution could take the form of an action plan or innovation. In the second and summative part of the experience, a digital platform was used where learners could log-in using avatars as names, and collaborate with peers in teams around the country to find solutions to the task that was set. The task engaged the learners in critical, creative, ethical, systems and problem solving skills. The submissions made by the groups were impressive and demonstrated the learners’ commitment to addressing inequalities, and engaging with the NDP and UN Sustainable Developmental Goals of 2030. This is an indication that this type of alternative assessment provides a platform to create awareness and develop learners' understanding of social responsibility as South Africans and global citizens. In general, the feedback from participating schools was very positive. The following comments received encapsulate some of this feedback: •‘the students have learnt a considerable amount and have been extended’. •‘This is what REAL education looks like in our global world. The discussions amongst the students, their proposals and debates were incredible and all those who stayed through to the end said that they enjoyed it immensely’. The IEB is in the process of reviewing the platform in order to provide tool integrations that enhance both the ease of participation and more authentic team collaboration. The improvements include tools such as: Instant Chat Messaging (Team Communication), Google Docs (Solution Collaboration), and also real-time aggregating/scoring and reporting.Next >