IEB 21 COVER E 11/9/21 1:46 PM Page 1 Composite CMYCMMYCYCMYKIEB 21 INS COVER E 11/9/21 1:45 PM Page 1 Composite CMYCMMYCYCMYKIEB 21 PG 1 E 11/9/21 1:32 PM Page 1 Composite CMYCMMYCYCMYKChairperson’s Message 2 CEO’s Message 4 Organisational Report 6 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 © 2021 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.IEB 21 PG 2 E 11/9/21 1:33 PM Page 1 Composite CMYCMMYCYCMYKWorld War, who gave us the expression “never let a good crisis go to waste.” The saying carries with it a hint of levity, but it was uttered with deadly serious intent. At stake was nothing less than the future of both Europe and the rest of the world. How to recover from unspeakable devastation and barbarity. We are in the midst of a similar point in our collective global experience. The Covid-19 pandemic has brought our world, and particularly our world of education, to a complex crisis with respect to our basic experience of learning. We have been tested as we have never been before. But it has taught us deeply important lessons. The first lesson is the now well-known one about learning losses. It essentially relates to the social challenge of Covid-19. In the last year and a half our children, families, schools and schooling systems across the world have experienced unprecedented disruption. At the beginning of the pandemic, shockingly, almost every educational system in the world went into lockdown. For almost four months, 1.8 billion children, most of the world’s school-going population, were placed into the care of their parents and guardians. As many commentators have tried to explain, the pandemic brought to the fore a lot of what is wrong with our schooling systems. It demonstrated, most poignantly, the extraordinary inequalities that exist between the rich and the poor. Better-resourced schools and families were able to sustain their children’s learning. Schooling continued almost unabated from just about the first day of the formal shut-down. Schools and teachers were able to respond quickly and often imaginatively. Not so for learners in disadvantaged areas. Many had no and still do not have access to quiet learning spaces, desks, and most critical, computers and internet connectivity. Six months into the pandemic teachers’ union SADTU conducted a survey amongst its members which revealed that two-thirds of learners from poorer households had almost no communication at all from their teachers during the school closures. The Executive Director of a large teacher union offered the opinion that for Grade 1 learners “... there is going to be a generation of people who cannot read at all. If you think we have a problem with reading now, watch this space.” Using a Belgian model to estimate learning losses as a result of disruptions, the educationist Vijay Reddy has predicted that the next time our learners write the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) they will be performing at levels attained in 2015, a loss of five years of gains that have been made in the system. The more challenging lesson, one hardly spoken about, is about the learning process. What Covid-19 revealed to the world as a whole, for almost the first time in 200 years of formal education, are the limitations of the model of teaching and learning we have been socialised into. Those limitations fundamentally have to do with the cohort model we use. Challenged by having to mediate ideas, concepts and information in meaningful ways for their children, parents, teachers, and students themselves, came to realise that the task of learning was, actually, immensely complex. They came to learn that each child, even siblings growing up alongside each other with similar affordances and difficulties, required a distinct learning plan. The value of the crisis, I am suggesting, is that for the first time in almost the whole of the history of mass education, we who are involved in managing and mediating the learning were forced to confront the reality that our deeply ingrained conventions for facilitating the learning of our children were not sufficient. What insightful educationists have been saying, even before the pandemic, is that we have to begin to think about the process of learning in more searching ways. Learning, they are telling us, is principally about what they describe as the ‘cognitive process’, or simply, ‘cognition’. The idea is complex. It involves many things, brains, bodies and physical and social environments. All of these are present and in interaction with each other when children learn. A child’s biology matters. If that body of hers is not well-cared for, it will affect how the child will learn. It will affect his brain. But it doesn’t do so in precisely identical ways for each child. Children experience and work with deprivation, or actually, stimulation, in different ways. The social environment in which the child lives and learns matters. Love and encouragement produce, powerfully, chemical responses in a child. Critically, in this, children should be helped to come to understand their own learning dynamics. They must come to an understanding of how their capacity for assimilating, remembering, processing information and synthesising and analysing it – it is called executive functioning – works. They must be helped to come to a sense that their learning depends on this capacity for executive functioning. If teachers don’t understand this, and don’t pay attention to it, they treat every single child as if he or she is exactly like the ideal child that much of our teacher education, in reality, tends to tell us about. Our children are all different. Teachers must not only rote-spout this fact, but come to a grounded appreciation of its implications. The best education they can provide is to help their learners come to some sense about this with respect Learning in the crisis of COVID-19 It was Winston Churchill, Britain’s foremost 20th century statesman, speaking in the build-up to the Yalta conference where the world’s leaders gathered to discuss the future of Europe in the wake of the SecondIEB 21 PG 3 E 11/9/21 1:33 PM Page 1 Composite CMYCMMYCYCMYKto their own learning. With this, our children begin the wonderful journey to cognitive self-management - to take real responsibility for their own learning. This is a lesson that knows no class, race, gender, language, or whatever, boundary. My appeal is not to let the moment go to waste. In big educational terms it is about challenging what we think are the incontrovertible ‘truths’ about our learning. What Covid- 19 has done is provided us with the opportunity to focus on, not simply knowledge, but our capacity for higher order thinking - working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility - the skills that enable complex decision-making, goal-directed behaviour, and the development of key cognitive and socio-emotional skills. An American educationist Sean Slade, blogging for the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) on their website ASCDINService, emphasises that the most critical skill the most successful American schools and classrooms dealing with the crisis of Covid-19 have demonstrated is “a sense of student agency and ownership over their own learning. Trying to replicate a standard, traditional classroom where the teacher is constantly present does not work as we teach and learn remotely… Students need to develop an understanding of their own role in the learning process and be encouraged to see themselves more as agents, or ideally owners of their own learning.” This is an extraordinary lesson. The exposure by the pandemic of exactly how complex the task of learning is, and that learning is an individual endeavour has emphasised the flawed logic of the cohort model that applies in mass education systems. The pandemic has laid bare the stark reality of the inadequacies of the assessment processes that dominate an individual’s progress through the educational system. Some systems abandoned formal school-leaving examinations completely, relying on teacher awarded grades, and have had to deal with the consequences of that - in England there has been a rise of some 13% in the number of students scoring A or A* in their A Level courses from 2019 to 2021. The use of assessment to guide and direct an individual’s learning and also manage the progress of learners in mass education systems stand in blunt contrast. Final examinations are criticised for their labelling which is often to the detriment of an individual, but at the same time they are considered critical for their apparently effective transparency in discriminating between participants in the system. It is this intractable problem of reconciling the role of assessment in individual learning and its role in managing mass education that occupies the IEB. As an assessment body that is mindful of this contradiction, the IEB is unwavering in its exploration of how the opposing purposes of assessment can be brought together in a meaningful way. Success in this dilemma is elusive, but it does not stop us trying. Professor Crain Soudien - Chairman of the BoardIEB 21 PG 4 E 11/9/21 1:34 PM Page 1 Composite CMYCMMYCYCMYK“Testing time is the time for an increase in praise”. - Sunday Adelaja And 2020 provided many, many instances where praise has been well-earned. It is with appreciation and deep respect that we praise the nurses and doctors who nursed many back to health, who experienced death on a daily basis but had the strength and willpower to go back the next day. We praise the community members who conducted screening and Covid testing, the police - all those who were and remain in the frontline of this battle. We praise the learners and teachers. The generosity of spirit displayed by teachers in sharing resources and making every possible effort to ensure that teaching continues as best it can, is astounding. Learners, too, have come to the fore, dedicating themselves to making the best of a difficult situation, leading in the establishment of study groups, whether online or in small groups, to help each other stay on track. And I praise the parents who would not allow the education of their children to be lost - they became “teachers” and in so doing have come to respect the profession! It was with a smile that I heard the confession: Just because I went to school, does not mean I can teach! School managers had the unenviable task of making hard decisions, of keeping teaching and learning going as best they could. In some instances, the best “online teaching” available was through WhatsApp and “learning parcels” - work provided by teachers, completed by learners and returned to the school for marking. However, they managed and have earned the appreciation and respect of their respective communities. They conducted the final examinations without compromise, ensuring Covid protocols were in place and doing everything possible to accommodate candidates safely. Indeed, we praise the NSC candidates who, despite the challenges, faced the exams head on and achieved an impressive 98,07% pass rate. We cannot look back on 2020 and not acknowledge the responsibility and stress of our leaders in government, in the education sector particularly, as they tried to make the best possible decisions on the information available to them, knowing they would never make everyone happy. The NSC has come to be seen as a rite of passage. Its value and significance as a qualification that marks the end of schooling and the beginning of adult life means that its reliability as an indicator of competence and the trustworthiness of its assessment need to be protected. It is these principles of reliability and trustworthiness that led the Minister of Basic Education to take decisions during this very difficult year to protect the integrity of the qualification by not trimming the curriculum. In so doing, she protected the learners of 2020 from being tarnished with the suggestion that their achievement is somehow inferior to that of students in die from Covid; teachers are at risk, learners will be damaged forever. We just need the vaccine; the vaccines are not effective against the new variants…... contradiction after contradiction. The most qualified virologists and medical scientists across the world knew nothing definite about what we were experiencing globally. In this, learners, teachers, managers, workers, parents, children - we were and continue to be co-learners - we all continue to learn about this together. In the words of Charles Dickens: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness……… In truth we all experienced emotional highs, followed by deep lows; at times, we were completely rational and logical, and then completely irrational; on occasions, we believed the world to be normal and we took our work and our studies seriously; at other times, we wondered how we could be worried about a maths exam or whether there will be sanitisers at schools when we saw death, poverty and despair around us. Despite the upheaval and the anxiety, the turbulence of 2020 provided opportunities for us all to develop resilience, to refine skills of self-management, to hone our emotional maturity. While no-one was able to attend school, many, including our adult learning community, did not stop their education, be it the formal process of engagement with teachers, facilitators and peers, or be it the non-formal learning that is so important in the development of a stable, constructive citizenry that is mindful of the plight not only of themselves but of others. 2020 was indeed a testing year. Testing for Covid, testing for Covid again; closing schools, opening schools; moving to online teaching, moving to blended learning, having no learning; children don’t get Covid, children are carriers of Covid, childrenIEB 21 PG 5 E 11/9/21 1:35 PM Page 1 Composite CMYCMMYCYCMYKother years. She and her personnel at the Department of Basic Education saved the academic year, despite constant calls from various sectors to “give up on the 2020 academic year”. Learners who were ready to move into the next phase of their life, were not compromised and forced to place their futures on hold. The IEB acknowledges and admires the resilience and resolution of the Minister and her staff in order to do “the right thing”. I acknowledge staff at Umalusi who carried out their quality assurance work with the rigour that is required. It would be remiss of me not to commend all those teachers who work in numerous capacities for the IEB to ensure that we carry out our assessment and stewardship of the validity and reliability of the NSC seriously. Even during the strictest periods of lockdown those teachers and IEB staff who could continue to work, did so - they never deserted their posts. As soon as people could return to office, the staff of the IEB who could, did so, performing their duties with energy and commitment to ensure that we would be able to provide an NSC examination with valid and reliable results. I praise the foresight of the Board for investing in a number of technological facilities that made our task during the hardships of 2020 easier - the Examination Authoring System, the electronic audio and video monitoring system. Under the leadership of Prof. Soudien, I acknowledge their wisdom from experience and the guidance they have given to us. Most of all, I acknowledge and appreciate their constant support throughout the year. I acknowledge the staff of the IEB. They gave their best and showed their commitment and dedication to the organisation - whenever called on to go that extra mile to make sure we did what needed to be done, everyone heeded the call. Special acknowledgement must go to those who made sure that people working from home had the necessary access to systems and support. Such systems included those needed to conduct meetings online through a variety of platforms as well as training for the less digitally able to make use of the systems. The IEB staff managed to conduct training of oral and regional moderators online while the IEB training unit, ASSET, ventured into online training with substantial success. I applaud the initiative of the broader IEB community in using technological solutions for conducting oral, practical and performance assessments and moderation, e-moderation of school-based assessment portfolios. Their innovative thinking and willingness to be life-long learners is testimony to the resilience of South Africans who will never give up and will make sure to do the job to the best of their ability in the face of enormous challenge and risk. I would like to end with the words of Hellen Keller: Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. The IEB has experienced trials and has suffered setbacks; these have served only to strengthen our soul and inspire our ambition; may the achievement of doing our work successfully, long continue! Anne Oberholzer - CEOIEB 21 PG 6 E 11/9/21 1:36 PM Page 1 Composite CMYCMMYCYCMYKThis organisational report highlights the IEB’s commitment to listen to its partners, hear the message, process and plan to accommodate them and finally make every effort to meet their needs. The arrival of Covid-19 in South Africa in February and the institution of Lockdown Level 5 on March 26 and the continuation of lockdowns at various levels throughout the year, severely affected the time span afforded to Grade 12 learners to attend classes at school. The Grade 12 year is especially significant as it is the year that marks the end of childhood and the beginning of adulthood. The access to results just before or just after the start of the New Year provides confirmation for most IEB Grade 12 learners that school is now behind them; they are on the threshold of the rest of their lives. The late release of the 2020 results served to remind these learners that 2020 was a year that they will remember. Their memories, however, will not include their experiences as a leader in the school, whether in the overt positions of school monitors, sports captains, lead performers in school concerts or simply being the senior members of the school. They will not include participation in sports or cultural tours, supporting peers in sports or cultural activities, prize-giving, the Matric Dance, Sports Day, the Annual Swimming Gala, sports tournaments and the numerous social events that occupy the spare time of Grade 12 learners. Even the annual Rage for 2020 was marked with despair and in some cases disaster, as it became one of the Covid-19 “super-spreader” events. Be sure, what a year these learners have faced. Psychologists indicate that missing out on these rites of passage are detrimental for a healthy transition into adult society; from properly saying goodbye after 12 years of schooling to understanding and respecting the significance of this transition and feeling a sense of belonging in this new “age group” in society, a sense of unfinished business and a sense of being unprepared for the new. Despite the upheaval and the anxiety, the turbulence of this year has provided learners across the grades, but Grade 12 learners especially, with experiences to develop skills and emotional maturity that will serve them well for the rest of their lives. While no-one was able to attend school for significant amounts of time, many did not stop their education, be it the formal process of engagement with teachers and school friends or be it the out-of-school learning that is so important in the development of a strong society that has the resilience and perseverance to make meaningful changes. Depending on the facilities available at the school and among the learners, learning went “virtual”, and many teachers embarked on a steep learning curve to adjust. However, there were those schools that were hampered in their efforts either because of poor connectivity in their area or because of a lack of appropriate equipment and availability of sufficient data to support online learning at the school or among learners. Parents too were thrown into a state of confusion by having to worry, not only about the security of their working life, but also in many instances becoming the guardian of their children’s education. This entailed not only ensuring that the children “attended classes” when they were supposed to but also providing support, encouragement and often to their horror, clarifying concepts and providing additional understanding of concepts for their children. Not only was there a palpable recognition and new societal respect for the vocation of teaching, there was also a realisation that teaching encompassed so much more than just the imparting of information and the marking of what is correct and what is not correct. Parents came to realise that the subtleties of skill in building the educational foundations and developing the ability for deep thinking are key elements of the profession - it is this domain of operation that belongs to teachers. Traditionally online schooling has been the purview of the home-schooling movement. As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to catapult work and learning into the digital realm around the world, the demand for online schooling platforms has soared. This demand is fuelled by a variety of factors - concerns around the disruption of ongoing school closures to a learner’s progress, health and safety concerns, a growing acceptance of digital delivery models of learning, global work and trade which require a more flexible schooling model for expat families and children and financial considerations. The entry into the use of online platforms in mainstream schools has shown parents and teachers that personal preference plays an important role in the learning of a child - indeed, for some children studying via an online platform together with individual support from a teacher proved to be a better match for their learning style than a formal classroom environment. These reasons are certainly not the only drivers but do cover the more common reasons. There are many factors that influence a parent and learner decision to pursue online schooling. Furthermore, success in online schooling in the recent past, in the achievement A testing time for Grade 12 learners Testing distance education and online schoolingIEB 21 PG 7 E 11/9/21 1:37 PM Page 1 Composite CMYCMMYCYCMYKof a recognised school-leaving qualification has encouraged the growth we have seen in online schooling as an acceptable mainstream alternative to the “brick and mortar” notion of a school. While there has been a statement from the South African government that home-schooling and online schooling are acceptable, there is, as yet, no distinction between home schooling and online schooling. In essence, home schooling is traditionally defined as the education of a child at home, usually managed and provided by a parent. Over time, this notion has changed as follows: •from simply a parent managing and providing the teaching and assessment •to the parent together with tutors in specific subjects managing and providing teaching and assessment •to children attending “tutor centres” on a regular basis where the education of the child is managed and provided by a variety of possible options e.g., qualified teachers, some parents and unqualified personnel. It is this latter version of so-called home education that causes difficulties for authorities as some of these centres are in fact operating as “independent schools” but do not necessarily abide by the regulations that govern independent education and hence, could place children at risk and deceive parents. It is the view of the IEB that an online school is a school and is not home schooling insofar as: •The tuition and assessment are controlled by properly qualified professionals. •It has learning programs that match the chosen curriculum. •It has a facility for a teacher in the specific subject to be able to assist learners, whether online via a video facility or email or traditional “paper-based” programs. •It has a system for assessing learners and measuring their progress. This is a professional activity and hence if it is to be done properly, it must be done by a qualified teacher employed by the online school. •If the online school brings learners together for any reason, its facilities or the facilities it uses must be able to accommodate them in accordance with health and safety requirements. In 2020, in the absence of government registration processes for the recognition of legitimate online schools, the IEB established an in-house registration process to conduct the initial compliance checks that would determine whether the IEB could ethically recognise affiliation to the IEB for the online school to offer the NSC. This application process is not a qualitative evaluation of the institution’s quality of teaching and learning but rather a process to determine whether it meets the minimum professional and administrative requirements to operate. It is a process for the IEB to be assured that the institution has the capacity to teach and assess the NSC curriculum and manage the conduct of assessment including practical and oral assessment as necessary.Next >