CONFUSION OVER 2 716 PUPILS WHO FAILED GRADE VII

MBABANE - There is confusion about what schools and parents should do with the 2 716 pupils who failed Grade VII.

The confusion is caused by the fact that the Ministry of Education and Training has not pronounced to stakeholders, such as schools and parents, a way forward. The reason the ministry is expected to give clarity on this issue is because 2024 was the last year for the Outcome-Based Education (OBE) curriculum. OBE is an educational philosophy that focuses on the desired outcomes or results of the learning process, rather than just the delivery of content or the completion of courses.

Curriculum

In 2025, the group of pupils in Grade VII will be under the Competency-Based Education (CBE) curriculum. The CBE is a continuous assessment syllabus. Children under the CBE have projects and coursework that they started in Grade V, which will also be used to grade their final examination marks in Grade VII. Following the introduction of the CBE, which means the phasing out of the OBE, last year, schools were advised that no pupil should repeat Grade VI since the plan was to phase out the OBE in primary school, and pupils under the stream needed to proceed to the next class.

Information gathered by this publication is that when the pupils were all promoted to Grade VII, the thinking was that there should not be any pupil who would fail Grade VII in 2024.
This is because if the pupils failed Grade VII, they would not be in a position to repeat Grade VII since a new curriculum would have taken over, and it is a continuous assessment programme that the OBE pupils would not have learnt under. On Monday, when the Minister for Education and Training, Owen Nxumalo, delivered the Eswatini Primary Certificate (EPC) examination results, he announced that 2 716 pupils failed the 2024 examination.

“The number of candidates who did not make it in the examination in 2024 at EPC level were 2 716, while in 2023 there were 2 295 candidates who did not make it,” said the minister during the press conference. Notably, the number of pupils who did not make it was 400 more compared to 2023. One of the reasons was the fact that all pupils were promoted to Grade VII in order to phase out the OBE and make way for the new stream under CBE. Following the announcement of the results, schools and parents are left in the dark regarding the pupils who have failed the examination.

The confusion, according to some head teachers, parents and education stakeholders, is caused by the fact that the Ministry of Education and Training has not provided guidance to schools on what should happen to the children. This is because schools cannot afford to have two streams of Grade VII due to resources and they are unsure if there would be a provision for the pupils to sit OBE external examinations in 2025 since it has been phased out. Secondly, the challenge is that the pupils could not be diverted to CBE since that certificate is a three-year programme that these pupils started in Grade V.“The children could not be promoted to Form I, at the same time they cannot repeat, because there is a new programme in place,” said a source. It was gathered that some of the possibilities were that the pupils could go back to Grade V so that they could be part of the CBE stream. This means these pupils might leave primary school at the age of 15 or 16 at least.

Dilemma

The Swaziland Association of Schools Administrators (SASA) Secretary, Gcina Thusi, said they are in a dilemma. The secretary said it puzzled them the most that the Ministry of Education and Training has still not communicated the official position. Thusi highlighted that last year, when the ministry issued a directive that compelled schools to promote all Grade VI pupils, they questioned the current situation. He said early this year, head teachers sought the ministry’s stance on what would happen to those who will not make it to Grade VII and if the Examinations Council of Eswatini (ECESWA) was engaged on the matter.

He said that to this day, nothing has been communicated and the beginning of the 2025 school calendar, which is on January 27, 2025, is fast approaching with no clear vision.
Thusi shared that the two curriculums have differences. “For example, under CBE, there is Expressive Arts, which is different from Practical Arts under OBE. There are also activities and projects that the OBE stream of pupils was not exposed to and other changes in the content. “We are not sure what will happen, because normally, the ministry should be guiding us, but it looks like the very same ministry is not willing to take a stand on this matter,” he said.

Assume

The secretary said they do not want to assume a position, but would wait for the Ministry of Education and Training to guide them. He said they communicated the challenges earlier that might occur and they were promised solutions. Thusi said it would be hard for the pupils who failed to repeat, because there are already changes in the curriculum and they could be left worse off, especially in the subjects that have practicals. He shared that if two streams had to be accommodated, additional resources such as classrooms and equipment would be needed, hence they are not sure if that has been put in place as well. The Acting Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Education and Training, Nanikie Mnisi, when she was asked about the ministry’s direction on the confusion, requested that questions be referred to the Office of the Director of Education, for an in-depth analysis on the matter.

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