60 errors in English exam in South Africa

Kavith Harrilall:

The quality of standardised tests set by provincial education officials has come under heavy criticism after scrutiny of a severely flawed September 2005 English Additional Language (Higher Grade) test.

The first section of the question paper contains at least 60 errors.

The test, which The Witness has in its possession, was designed for Grade 11 pupils across KwaZulu-Natal. It is understood that the results form part of pupils' continuous assessment mark, which is 25% of the final year mark.

Criticism has been levelled at virtually all aspects of the paper. A language expert noted that there are at least 45 errors in the comprehension passage, and 15 in the questions that follow.

"Grammatically, the passage is defective in tense usage, punctuation, and in the usage of vocabulary, idioms and expressions. Some imperfections may be due to genuine error, or careless proofreading or careless typing.

"I would be more lenient with a second or third language grade 11 pupil, but I am assessing a teacher here who set the paper, not a child. Perhaps a teacher should be even more harshly penalised, because an exam paper should contain no errors," said the language expert.

He asked: "What does this say about the moderator concerned, who was supposed to have checked the paper?"

Experts seriously questioned the appropriateness of the subject matter of the passage, which describes disturbing scenes involving the stabbing of a youth by two of the other main characters in the story. It includes a description of their subsequent death by poisoning.

"The passage contains too many grammatical and word usage errors. The passage is certainly not an example of the language properly used," said a vastly experienced examiner.

He added that there are also flaws in the arrangement of the paper, related to the numbering of questions.

"The moderator checks to ensure that the material is on the syllabus. They look at the technical aspects, as well as editing and the suitability of the material.

"The paper is taken back to the examiner, if necessary. They make changes in a co-operative effort. In this case, this process has failed," he said.

I wonder if they will start blaming this on Apartheid as well?