Hola MaHigh-School - September 2020

what about grade 10
and 11?
The department’s proposal is:
• Final promotional examinations
should be replaced with a formal
final class test which is schoolbased;
• Common tests or examinations,
even at the district-level, should be
discouraged;
• For promotional purposes, a ratio
of 80:20 should be used (80%
School-Based Assessment to 20%
final class test);
In essence, the school-based assessment
is the key to going to next grade.
It does make sense insofar as some
50% of the school year is a wash-out.
But what about the curriculum? We cannot have a situation where there
is a difference in curriculum between 2019 and 2021 students. Then we
will disadvantage the 2020 students. And force employers and tertiary
institutions to know the difference.
There are proposals to ‘adjust’ the curriculum so portions that could not
be taught this year will ‘carry over’ to 2021. That means that the 2021
school calendar will have to be revised as well. Otherwise there is no
time to also teach the ‘carry over’.
Some of it might even be carried over to 2022.
It may be the only reasonable way of handling the gap in teaching.
Cramming the entire curriculum into the remaining few months cannot
work either. Even if teaching during weekends is also offered.