REPORT ON THE ANA OF 2014

An audit of all storage areas (nodal points and schools where applicable) was conducted during the state of readinessvisits, which took place at least three months prior to the test administration process. In most of the provinces the testswere either delivered to schools or collected by school principals on the day of the test. This was done to ensure theconfidentiality of the test.3.2.3 Test Administration(a)The writing of the ANAThe writing of the ANA in public schools was managed by the School Management Teams (SMTs), with the schoolprincipal being held finally accountable for the credibility of the test administration process. The DBE and PEDs monitoreda sample of the public schools, as one of the standardisation measures.The PED deployed a monitor to manage the administration of tests in each of the State-Funded Independent School.According to paragraphs 177 (1) and 177 (3) of the National Norms and Standards for School Funding, the Grade 3 orthe Grade 6 ANA instrument used in public schools, should also be used to determine the eligibility of State-FundedIndependent Schools for subsidy.The following standardisation measures were implemented across all schools writing ANA 2014:i. Writing according to a common timetableA common timetable specifying the dates (16-19 September 2014) and times at which specific ANA tests papers wereto be written were distributed to all schools by April 2014.ii.Training of test administrators and monitorsThe roles and responsibilities of the test administrators were detailed in a Test Administration Manual (TAM) that wasdeveloped and distributed to all schools by the DBE. Training sessions for provincial core training teams were conductedby the DBE in all provinces by the end of June 2014. The core teams cascaded the training to all officials as well asschool principals in their respective provinces.iii.Invigilation during test administrationThe Test Administration Manual (TAM) specified, amongst other things, how the invigilation process should be managed.Teachers in public schools were instructed not to invigilate their own classes except for Grades 1 and 2. In only Grades 1and 2 teachers were allowed to invigilate their classes to ensure younger learners would be writing the test in a familiarenviroment. Learners from Grade 3 upwards read the questions independently and wrote the answers in the providedbooklets. In state-funded Independent Schools a monitor from the provincial or district office brought the test papers tothe school, monitored the administration of the tests, and collected all the test papers immediately after the writing. Allthe scripts were delivered to the district office after each writing session.iv.Monitoring the administration of testsIntensive monitoring was provided by the district, province and at national level to ensure strict compliance to the TestAdministration Manual. A sample of universal ANA and Verification ANA schools were monitored. A total of 102 DBEmonitors visited a sample of schools in the nine provinces to monitor and support the test administration process. Allmonitoring teams reported satisfactory test administration procedures in all public schools.32 | REPORT ON THE ANNUAL NATIONAL ASSESSMENTS OF 2014