Learning crisis much more serious than energy crisis, says education MEC Maynier
The Western Cape education department has launched an ambitious drive to reverse the learning losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic, setting aside R1.2bn over the next three years to try to improve pupils’ language and maths skills.
The intermittent school closures imposed by the government in response to Covid-19 caused huge disruption to education, with pupils losing an estimated 155 school days in 2020 and 2021, equivalent to three-quarters of a school year. In a study published in 2022, researchers estimated that most pupils were a year behind the level they would have been if not for the pandemic.
The Western Cape’s “back on track campaign” will provide targeted support to 333 schools, more than 126,000 pupils and almost 9,000 teachers. It builds on a previous initiative to provide support to foundation-phase teachers and pupils at 1,100 schools that kicked off in 2022. The campaign will be evaluated by the Western Cape education department’s systemic tests and term marks, said Maynier. The systemic tests gauge maths and language skills and are written once a year by pupils in grades 3, 6, and 9. Western Cape is the only province to administer these tests, and has done so every year since 2002, except for 2020. In 2021, the results of the tests showed the loss of face-to-face teaching during the pandemic had erased years of steady gains.
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