WCED Minute

1.	Introduction

1.1

Schools were informed through Circular 0019/2014 of the 2014 Annual National Assessments (ANA) to be written on 16 – 19 September 2014 by Grades 1 to 6 and 9 learners at ordinary public schools and some special schools. At state-aided independent schools, only Grade 3 or Grade 6 will write the ANA, whichever grade offered at the school is higher.

1.2	The purpose of this minute is to explain the arrangements for the management, administration, conduct and marking of the ANA.

2.	Procedures before the writing of the ANA

2.1	Registration of learners

2.1.1

Schools were provided with a Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT) Report on the Centralised Education Management Information System (CEMIS), and were requested to ensure that all learner registration was completed correctly by April 2014. This was to ensure that learners write the tests in the correct LoLT, subject and grade.

2.1.2

Test papers will be packaged and distributed according to the CEMIS learner registration information.

2.1.3

Any changes in registration must be effected on the CEMIS immediately. Any challenges must be reported to the education district CEMIS officials as indicated in the table below:

Education District	CEMIS Official	Contact Number
Cape Winelands Education District	Zakir Allie Keith Zibi	023 349 0643 023 348 0642
Metro East Education District	Buseka Ndinisa Thembeka Dlamini	021 900 7180 021 900 7181
Metro Central Education District	Anita McGrath Tercia Southgate	021 514 6751 021 514 6737
Metro North Education District	Shireen Matthews	021 467 9260
Metro South Education District	Anastasia Rose	021 703 3198
Overberg Education District	Kevin van Eeden	028 214 7411
West Coast Education District	Mervan Davids Toka Mokhoane	021 860 1596
Eden and Central Karoo Education District	Yvonne Ngwane	044 803 8356

2.2	Receipt, checking and storage of the test material

2.2.1

The distribution of the ANA test material will commence on 01 September 2014 and conclude on 10 September 2014.

2.2.2

The ANA consignments will consist of the following:

The ANA tests;
An ANA Test Packing List response slip to acknowledge receipt of test material;
Copy of this Assessment Management Minute number 0016/2014;
Teacher guide to the Annual National Assessments;
Brown wrappers for the batching of the ANA sampled scripts that must be submitted to the education district for re-marking;
CD on which the memoranda is contained;
Errata information for Grades 1, 2, 3, 6 and 9;
Checklist for the submission of the ANA scripts; and
Printing paper for the photocopying of Verification ANA scripts ¡V Verification ANA schools.

2.2.3

The tests will be delivered to schools per grade and the boxes for each grade will be identified by a colour-coded sticker. The grades will be indicated as follows:

Grade 1	Yellow
Grade 2	Pink
Grade 3	Blue
Grade 4	Grey
Grade 5	Green
Grade 6	Orange
Grade 9	Purple

2.2.4

On receipt of the ANA consignment, the principal must verify the response slip labelled Annual National Assessments Packing List against the contents of the box(es), sign and fax it to 021 461 5628, for the attention of Ms Bronwyn Calvert. Shortages must also be reported to Ms Calvert.

2.2.5

The ANA Packing List response slip indicates that the school has received the correct number of tests, as printed on the sticker, and in the correct LoLT. The plastic bags containing the tests must only be opened in front of the invigilators on the day of the test.

2.2.6

The tests must be stored in a strongroom / safe that is accessible only to the principal. The stored tests must be arranged in the chronological order of writing, to ensure that each test will be written on the correct day.

2.2.7

The principal may open the box in which the test material arrives, but not the plastic bags in which the scripts are contained. Opening of the plastic bags prior to this will be regarded as an assessment irregularity.

2.2.8

Principals are advised that there are some ANA tests which contain errata. The errata must be taken into account before the commencement of each test.

2.3	Invigilation

2.3.1

The principal will serve as the chief invigilator in his or her school, and must ensure that an invigilation timetable is drawn up.

2.3.2

Teachers should not provide assistance that will advantage learners in any way. Principals must inform teachers that if they assist learners in any way, this will be considered an assessment irregularity.

2.3.3

Teachers teaching the Grades 1 and 2 classes will invigilate their own classes. All questions have to be read aloud by the teacher to Grades 1 and 2 learners without giving them the answers or clues.

2.3.4

Grades 3 to 6 and 9 teachers are not allowed to invigilate the classes they are currently teaching. Learners in Grades 3 to 6 and 9 must read the questions themselves and work on their own.

2.3.5

Teachers who are invigilating the ANA must be provided with the attached Annexure A: Teacher Guide to the Annual National Assessment at least a week before the commencement of the test, to ensure that each teacher knows exactly how to invigilate the allocated class.

2.3.6

The principal is responsible for the training of all teachers who will invigilate the tests. An attendance register must be kept which will serve as evidence of training.

2.3.7

Invigilators must be informed of the duration of the tests beforehand. Failure to adhere to the test time frames will constitute an assessment irregularity.

2.4	Test venue preparation

2.4.1

Allocated venues for writing the ANA are to be prepared at least one day before the writing of each test.

2.4.2

Walls containing any material that could assist learners must be covered, or the material removed.

2.4.3

Learners in the Foundation Phase (Grades 1 to 3) may be allowed to use teaching aids as prescribed in the Mathematics Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS). The teaching aids range from the learners' counters, 100 charts, and number lines to any other aids that learners are normally permitted to use to solve a problem.

2.4.4

Seating in the venue must be arranged in a manner that ensures that learners do not have access to one another's work.

3.	Monitoring

3.1	Representatives from the Department of Basic Education (DBE), the Provincial Head Office and education districts offices will monitor the assessment processes at schools.

3.2

No person may be allowed to enter a school without producing an identification document and a letter of appointment from the Western Cape Education Department (WCED). Should there be any doubt about a person's identity, the head of the institution must telephone the Director: Assessment Management (Mrs Z Modimakwane) at 021 467 2057 / 071 683 6286 or Mr J Parbhoo at 021 467 2572 without delay.

4.	Procedure on the day of writing an ANA

4.1

Learners are required to report to the writing venues at least 20 minutes prior to the commencement of the test. Learners should be given 10 – 15 minutes to complete the details on the cover page (which should be written on the board) and go through the practice exercises. Each test will start at 09:00 on the specified day. In cases where the management of errata has delayed the assessment, the learners must be compensated for lost time.

4.2

The ANA tests which will be written on a particular day must be verified by the principal of the school and distributed to the teachers invigilating the classes, along with the mark sheet which will be used as the attendance register. Failure to ensure that the learners are writing the correct test for the grade will be considered an assessment irregularity.

4.3

The mark sheets for the ANA will not be supplied to schools. Instead schools will be required to print these mark sheets from the CEMIS. Schools are requested to download and print the mark sheets by going to "Assessments", "ANA 2014", and then to "ANA Mark Sheets". The Language and Mathematics mark sheet for each class in the relevant grade must be downloaded and printed by 11 September 2014. The mark sheet will also be used as the attendance register.

4.4	Invigilators must ensure that learners are issued with the correct tests.

4.5	Principals must ensure that invigilators are provided with the relevant administrative information that is required on the cover page of the test, for example the province, education district, circuit number, school name, school's 9-digit EMIS number and the class group of the learner.

4.6	It is recommended that the ANA timetable be placed in such a manner that it can be viewed by everyone involved in the writing, conduct and administration of the ANA, for example on the wall of the principal's office, etc.

5.	Procedure after writing the ANA

5.1	Management of scripts and absenteeism

5.1.1

After the writing of the ANA, on a daily basis, invigilators must submit the ANA scripts and the mark sheet containing the absentee learners to the principal. The subject head or the head of department is requested to distribute the scripts to the relevant teachers for marking and moderation.

5.1.2

Absent learners must be captured on the CEMIS on a daily basis after the writing of the ANA. Click on the "Assessments" tab, "ANA 2014", then on the "ANA Mark Sheets". The school must type "A" to indicate that the learner is absent and "V" to indicate that the learner script has been selected for Verification ANA (refer to paragraph 5.5). The principal is still required to go on CEMIS to indicate that all learners are present.

5.2	Marking and moderation

5.2.1

The memoranda must be made available to the teachers immediately after the writing of the test. The password for the memoranda on the CD will be made available daily through the district's assessment co-ordinator and it will be placed on the GET Assessment Management website. The memoranda may also be accessed at http://wced.school.za/home/home.html by clicking on:

"Teaching/Curriculum Support";
then on "Assessment Management";
then on "GET Assessment";
then on "Annual National Assessments";
then on "Annual National Assessments 2014"; and
then on "ANA 2014 Memoranda".

5.2.2

At schools where more than one teacher teaches the subject, memorandum discussions must be arranged by the subject heads.

5.2.3

When marking the ANA scripts, all teachers mark in red ink and the school management teams moderate in green ink.

5.2.4

All Grades 1 to 6 and 9 scripts at ordinary public and special schools must be marked and 10% must be internally moderated at school level by the subject team by 26 September 2014. If a variance of 2% is found in the sample of moderated scripts, the scripts should be returned to the teacher for re-marking.

5.2.5

After internal moderation at school level, the final marks must be captured by the teacher on the mark sheets provided.

5.2.6

Educators must note that correct as well as incorrect answers must be marked.

5.2.7

After internal moderation of marking, the heads of department must submit the mark sheets and the internally moderated scripts to the principal for electronic capturing on the CEMIS. The hard copies of the mark sheets must be signed off as correct by the Heads of Department / Principal.

5.3	Recording and reporting

5.3.1

The principal must employ a data capturer to capture the ANA marks on the CEMIS. The mark capturing functions can be accessed on the CEMIS under "Assessments", "ANA 2014", then "ANA mark sheets".

5.3.2

Once the marks for all learners have been captured, the completed mark sheet must be printed, verified and signed off by the head of department or principal. These mark sheets must be kept safely at the school in the case of queries

5.3.3

The ANA data capturer will be remunerated according to the national norm of 2000 marks per day. Details on the number of marks to be captured per school and the amount to be paid to the data capturer will be displayed on the CEMIS. The principal may pay the data capturer from school funds, and the WCED will reimburse the school according to the prescribed tariff.

5.3.4

Capturing of the marks must be completed by10 October 2014, and principals must sign off all captured mark sheets on the CEMIS before 16 October 2014.

5.4	Preparation of sampled scripts for the centralised re-marking of the ANA

5.4.1

In an effort to ensure that the correct scripts are sampled and submitted to the marking centre for the re-marking of the ANA, the following procedures are to be followed:

5.4.1.1

After the absentee learners for both subjects and Verification ANA learners have been captured on the CEMIS for each class, the CEMIS will sample the scripts to be submitted for re-marking and generate an ANA moderation script control sheet. This sheet must be printed from the CEMIS and will contain only the names of the learners whose Language and Mathematics scripts have to be submitted to the marking centre for centralised re-marking. The moderation script control sheet can be accessed on the CEMIS by going to "Assessments", then "ANA 2014", then "moderation script control sheet".

5.4.1.2

Once the moderation script control sheet has been downloaded and printed, the final internally moderated marks of only the sampled learners must be entered manually by the head of department onto this sheet.

5.4.1.3

In order to provide schools with an analysis of their sampled learner results, the per question capturing sheet, which contains the name of a sampled learner must also be downloaded and printed from the CEMIS. The per question capturing sheet can be accessed by going to "Assessments", then "ANA 2014", then "per question capturing sheet". This per question capturing sheet must be inserted for each sampled learner into the correctly indicated ANA Language or Mathematics script when submitting to the education district for centralised re-marking.

5.4.1.4

The following must be batched in the brown wrapper and submitted to the education district marking centre for re-marking in this order:

The ANA checklist must indicate that all the documents have been included and signed by the principal;
the sampled scripts per Grade 3, 6 and/or 9;
the ANA moderation script control sheet that is placed on top of the sampled scripts; and
the ANA per question capturing sheet per learner that is placed inside each sampled learner's script.

5.5	ANA verification

5.5.1

A total of 246 schools in the Western Cape have been selected as ANA verification schools.

5.5.2

An independent agent appointed by the DBE will monitor the administration of the ANA at these schools. A sample of 25 scripts per subject per grade will be selected by the independent agent, after all learners have written the ANA, and marked independently.

5.5.3

It is requested that schools make copies of the scripts sampled by the independent agent and hand the original sampled scripts to the independent agent on the day of the test. The photocopied scripts must be marked at school level and the marks entered on the mark sheet and captured on the CEMIS. These identified schools will also receive a batch of paper to assist with the cost of photocopies.

5.5.4

Principals, teachers and learners of the selected ANA verification schools will be requested to complete questionnaires, which will be provided by the independent agent.

5.5.5

Principals will be informed by the district office whether their school has been selected as a school for ANA verification.

6.	The WCED will continue to rely on your support in ensuring that the ANA is conducted with the integrity befitting a national assessment.

7.	Please bring this minute to the attention of the teachers concerned.

SIGNED: BK SCHREUDER
DEPUTY DIRECTOR-GENERAL: CURRICULUM AND ASSESSMENT MANAGEMENT
DATE: 2014:08:29

Annexure A: Teacher Guide to the Annual National Assessment (size: 37 KB)