table of contents Chairperson’s Message2 CEO’s Message4 Organisational Report6 Corporate Governance14 Finances16 Guild Hall 5 Anerley Road, Parktown Johannesburg 2193 PO Box 875, Highlands North, 2037 Tel 011 483 9700 Email assess@ieb.co.za Website www.ieb.co.za Design by Gingermoon Creative Studio © 2020 Independent Examinations Board. Reproduction of the IEB Annual Report in whole or in part without written permission from the IEB or the publishers is strictly prohibited. Great care has been taken in preparation of the articles. The editor and publishers therefore cannot accept responsibility for any errors which may inadvertently have occurred. The opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and/or persons interviewed, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editor, publisher or the IEB. Audi alteram partem is a Latin phrase meaning "listen to the other side", or "let the other side be heard as well". It is the principle that no person should be judged without a fair hearing.Hearing the Other Side – An Educational Principle Our theme for this year’s Annual Report is audi alteram partem - plainly put, hearing the other side. Audi alteram partem is, of course, Latin and references a critical principle in Criminal Law. This Criminal Law itself is rooted in Roman Dutch law which forms the basis of South Africa’s formal jurisprudence. It is, however, foundational in most legal systems around the world. It is a central element in South African customary law. It is about giving a person who is standing trial - for whatever reason - an opportunity to account for what he or she did and, on the basis of this accounting to come to a fuller understanding of a situation. The objective of audi alteram partem is to arrive at a point where it can be said that due consideration was given to all the relevant information necessary for coming to a conclusion about a problem. Fairness was observed. Fight we must, always, for observing and upholding this principle. Implicit in its working, however, is a methodology. That methodology is the process through which we come to make distinctions and it is, and here is the relevance for us here at the IEB and for the whole learning community, completely educational. When those persons sitting on a hearing come to a decision about what had happened in a situation which they are trying to make sense of, we would like to think that they will demonstrate the capacity to recognise, identify and explain similarities, differences, distinctions, variations and nuances. 2 chairperson’s message The methodology of making sense of difference sits at the heart of what we seek to do in education. Read any respectable philosophy of education text, not framework policies for national educational objectives, and you will see how cautiously philosophers will express themselves about what the aims of education are. They will demur, even when it comes to making an argument for the national good, or human interest. They will be able to find, almost always, a confounding reason for why a singular rule or statement would not satisfactorily answer the question about the aims of education. This cautiousness, correctly, comes from that single anxiety about whose interests are being privileged in defining good and interest. These same philosophers, however, will regularly appeal to the quality of distinction-making which is in evidence when anybody pronounces on what is desirable for themselves and particularly for others. The methodology of audi alteram partem, lawyer’s bread and butter, if you like, is that of making distinctions. It is demonstrating the capacity of higher order thinking. It is about not simply looking for the rendering of that which is right for the moment. That which is right for the moment may indeed have benefits for whomever and whatever is in and under consideration. But it can never stand by itself. It has to be, always, placed alongside other evidence. But, as it is for lawyers, so is it for us. This is what we do here in our process of assessing. We look for the distinctions. When we look at an answer to a question, one which goes beyond recall, which, of course, will always be part of any examination paper, we are using this exact same methodology. Our objective, in assessment, is to see then how well our learners manage this task of making distinctions. They have to begin by recalling. The more they’re able to recall, a first step, the better. They need to know a lot. How they take this ‘lot’ and work with it is the process of distinction-making, bringing the other side into view and showing how it is different. And here is the difficulty. Distinctions can be made. But can they be made well? How this side, one’s own, and the other, somebody else’s, are brought into juxtaposition and comparison, and then synthesized will invariably be the deep educational challenge. Professor Crain Soudien, Chairman of the Board, June 20203 “Everything that affects a citizen in his civil life, inflicts a civil consequence”. Unknown4 Education is a challenging space with expectations from teachers stretching way beyond the academic discipline of the subjects in the curriculum. In the words of Karl Menninger, “What a teacher is, is more important than what he teaches”. In this day and age, we would be mindful to acknowledge the substantial role of women in education and speak too of “she”. The IEB is conscious of these expectations and every year, we make an effort to develop and deliver workshops that help teachers to make sense of and manage in their world. Workshops ranged from new ways of seeing and understanding through to concrete strategies for implementation. The workshop on digital literacy provided teachers with an opportunity to explore various strategies for effective use of the facility in their classrooms. A workshop on the implementation of accommodations focussed on effective implementation strategies for learners who experience barriers to learning and was aimed at assisting learners to overcome the barrier or develop personal strategies to live with it more effectively. Two popular workshops dealt with managing the diverse classroom. Strategies for Multilingual Classrooms is a workshop that provides teachers with theoretical frameworks for understanding the teaching environment and the learners with whom they work. It included practical ideas for using this knowledge to transform their classrooms. Our training unit, ASSET, provides a range of workshops and courses which can be customised to address the specific needs of a school community. While there are generic aspects, we are acutely aware of how frustrating it can be when a course does not speak to one’s specific circumstances and experience. This is a particular strength of the work of ASSET – listen to your clients’ needs and in our adaptation, ensure that they have been heard. New workshops are developed annually, focussing on topics of relevance, as raised by the teachers themselves. In policy-making the IEB makes every effort to ensure that the relevant role-players are heard. In 2019 the policy employed in the selection of prescribed works for official languages was reviewed with the express purpose of actively seeking input from teachers before final selections are made. This is not to say that there may well be selections with which some are not entirely comfortable. However, the policy now ensures that objections are heard fully beforehand and the IEB can take active steps to address the concerns and assist teachers who are uncomfortable, with strategies of how to manage the texts in their classrooms. The IEB purposefully selects specific texts, themes and focus study options that encourage learners and hence also their teachers, to explore ideas that may make them uncomfortable. Such a situation requires teachers and learners to develop attitudes that encompass tolerance of different opinions in order to critically engage with the point being made. As Cicily Tyson, an African-American celebrity now 95 years of age, observes: Challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew. ceo’s message Although listening is considered a fundamental part of successful communication, too frequently people feel that they are possibly being listened to, but certainly are not being heard. The alternate translation of the term then should probably become the norm i.e. let the other side be heard. In Latin the same word is used for the act of listening and the passive experience of being heard - it is this distinction that modern English seemingly has lost. It is certainly a common experience of those who hold opinions that differ from the “in-crowd” on social media. And it is this change in human behaviour from the days of the Romans that seems to be at the heart of many of the societal conflicts that are being experienced currently across the world - just because you are listening to me, does not automatically mean you are hearing me. Those of us who work in the world of education need to be constantly mindful of the two facets of the term “Audi”. Communication is a vital skill that ideally we work at throughout our lives, honing our ability to listen, to speak, to observe, to hear. As Robert Frost, the renowned American poet observed, “Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.” The work of an educator then is about teaching children to listen to the words, to hear the message, to identify connections and process the related ideas in order to come to an authentic understanding of the issues and reach a well- reasoned response. In its practices the IEB makes every effort to “audi alteram partem” in the full sense of the maxim and so as an educational institution, we listen to the words, we try to hear the message, we then identify connections and process the related ideas in order to come to an authentic understanding of the issues and reach a well- reasoned response. Our intention is to serve education and all its role-players – teachers, learners, parents, authorities – and, to do that, we must listen and our role-players must be heard. Audi alteram partem: to listen to the other side is a commonplace principle in law - no judgement should be made without listening to the other side. It is also a commonly accepted principle in debate, conversation, discussion and social etiquette.5 “When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new”. Dalai Lama The purpose of engagement with the education community more broadly is to expand our horizons and network of participation. Where possible, members of IEB staff are involved with relevant subject associations and special interest organisations. In 2019, the National Association of Social Change Entities in Education (NASCEE), a coalition of education non-profit organisations (NPOs) working in education, was formed and the IEB is an active member. Staff regularly present at local and international conferences. Teachers and learners benefit from multiple sources of information about a learner’s abilities and achievements. To this end the IEB is constantly looking to add value to that picture through innovative but meaningful assessments. In 2019 the IEB offered the Reasoning International Benchmarking Tests in partnership with the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). According to ACER, the content of these test papers is based on questions that have been successfully used to identify high-achieving students for scholarship placements, and that learners who do not perform so well on “traditional” curriculum-based academic tests may well excel on the general capabilities being assessed in IBT Reasoning. The South African schools scaled score average was above the International Average in all grades (Grades 3-10), confirming that the quality of education in the participating schools of South Africa is world-class. The improvements in technology in education constantly challenge the IEB to consider how we can use technology to keep examination costs manageable, a constant plea from our institutions. The expansion of the Examination Portal is at the forefront of the IEB’s innovations. In 2019, the IEB made extensive use of the electronic audio-video monitoring system at all its schools in South Africa. We can listen and the words can be heard but still the message may not be clear – after all, we can listen to and the term ”pineapple” can be heard; however it is neither an apple nor a pine; it is in fact a large berry! The Cambridge Dictionary defines transformation as: a complete change in the appearance or character of something or someone, especially so that that thing or person is improved. With that in mind, the IEB is constantly thinking about what a decolonized curriculum looks like; what anti-racist education means in practice. A more challenging question is how to reach consensus on these issues and thereby avoid the pitfall of changing the “appearance” without changing the “character” - central educational values and beliefs that are worth keeping from the current curriculum ought to be meaningfully built into the new, to improve the educational experience of our children. Once again I thank the educational institutions that place their trust and confidence in the IEB. Our work is not possible without our Board members who give freely of their time and expertise to serve the IEB and more generally education in our country. I must mention specifically our Chair, Professor Crain Soudien, and our deputy Chair, Mr Nathan Johnstone, for their consistent support and wise counsel. I also thank our treasurer, Ms Annelien Maré, who oversees our financial position. Last but definitely not least, I thank every single member of the IEB staff for their unwavering commitment to ensure that the organisation does its work effectively. I must acknowledge the executive and senior management of the organization for their leadership – they are in no small way, responsible for the success of the IEB. Anne Oberholzer - CEOThis organisational report highlights the IEB’s commitment to listen to its partners, hear the message, process and plan to accommodate them and finally make every effort to meet their needs. The IEB is conscious of the multiple expectations of teachers from society, school boards and management. Each year, we make an effort to develop and deliver workshops that help teachers to make sense of and manage in their world. Workshops in this operational year ranged from introducing teachers to new ways of seeing and understanding through to concrete strategies for implementation. The growing emphasis on notions of a decolonised curriculum has led the IEB to engage with the concept more closely and understand what it means for our classrooms. Beginning to address the need to decolonise education in South Africa requires a much more complex response than simply replacing Eurocentric texts with Afrocentric ones. A key factor in driving such change lies in recognising and valuing the role that language plays in the teaching and learning process. Most South African learners have complex linguistic identities, so that even when classes appear monolingual, the individual learners draw on multiple languages as they navigate their worlds, so that education that genuinely engages the “whole child” needs to accommodate this reality. In July 2019, the Strategies for Multilingual Classrooms workshop was conducted in four regions - Gauteng, KwaZulu Natal, the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape - with the aim of providing teachers with theoretical frameworks for understanding these spaces, and practical ideas for using this knowledge to transform their classrooms. The workshops explored such ideas as culturally relevant pedagogy, codeswitching and translanguaging, encouraging teachers to apply the concepts using various groupwork strategies, in the planning of their lessons. This workshop built on ideas introduced in the very popular Dangerous Classrooms workshop. The Dangerous Classrooms, an existing workshop, has proved to be sufficiently popular to be requested specifically by schools. The workshop explores the teaching of critical thinking, a process that leads to interrogation of topics that may be challenging for teachers and learners. As Cicily Tyson, an African-American celebrity now 95 years of age, observes: Challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew. It remains a valuable resource for teachers who are developing the courage to interrogate their own prejudices and raise the consciousness of the learners in their classrooms. 6 The emphasis on digital literacy in our world encouraged the IEB to begin work on a new teacher training initiative. Teachers have repeatedly expressed their “fears” and concerns about venturing into this world. Hence the approach we have taken seeks to integrate computational thinking in all classrooms and not simply scheduled ICT lessons. As creativity, problem solving, collaboration algorithmic thinking and design-based thinking are among the targeted skills in education currently, this initiative intends to promote the acquisition of these skills in a holistic development of learners in primary and secondary school settings. To get this initiative off the ground, the IEB has engaged with several experts from Grades R right through to Grades 12 to tap into imaginative teaching methods that front the “Thinking” and not the “Gadgets”. The Department of Basic Education released a draft Digital Skills curriculum Gr R-3. It provided clear guidance on what is envisioned for our country. Planned workshops by the IEB will provide added value in that not only will they provide guidance for the implementation of the Digital Skills curriculum but will also serve as a pool of pedagogical approaches that can be implemented across various disciplines and grades. The workshops planned for roll-out in 2020 follow a thinking-driven approach rather than a technology-driven one. Digital Skills in this context is less about code and more about self-expression (Grover and Pea, 2013). The IEB sees its role not only to motivate and encourage teachers to see differently. Our task is also to relieve stress by providing tried and tested implementation strategies. A series of workshops were held nationally to assist school management with the implementation of accommodations for learners who experience barriers to learning, practically at schools. Accommodations are implemented for qualifying learners to allow them to demonstrate their skills and knowledge as best as they can, but at the same time, do not become a management burden for schools. The goal of provision of accommodations is to remove barriers to measuring a construct that may require a capability that the learner may not have e.g. a learner who is visually impaired, is likely to require the accommodation of enlarged print in order to nullify the barrier. This ensures accessibility to and fairness in assessment for all learners. In addition, the workshop also provided instruction for school management on the training of readers and scribes. To ensure the integrity of assessment, it is essential that guidelines on how readers and scribes perform their duties are clear to ensure fairness in assessment for all learners. The adult education and training sector has found itself in a place where the idea of “Audi alteram partem” is imperative to the survival of the sector. In many of our discussions with providers of adult learning programmes, it became apparent that many were unsure if they were running their centres effectively. In light of this the IEB invited Professor Peter Rule from the University of Stellenbosch to be the guest speaker at our annual User Forum. Professor Rule, a well-respected lecturer and researcher in the field of adult organisational report Directed Professional Developmenteducation and training, recently completed a research study on what makes an adult education centre, whether private or public, an effective learning centre. His presentation challenged many to re-think how they should manage their centres and specifically, the learning that takes place. The dynamic local and global context of education challenges traditional methodologies used by teachers in their classrooms. Teachers are increasingly being asked to shift their teaching, learning and assessment practices to provide learners with meaningful opportunities that allow them, intentionally and explicitly, to develop the essential skills required for success in the modern world. In addition to the expected skills of critical and creative thinking, communication and problem solving, our modern world increasingly demands from our learners, skills of collaboration, metacognition, an understanding of multiple perspectives and attributes of empathy and resilience. The IEB training unit, ASSET, surveys our clients and constantly updates and develops new courses and workshops to add to the suite of courses and workshops that it has offered to schools, colleges, universities and other providers in education over many years. As we move into the modern world of teaching, learning and assessment where personalisation of the learning space is becoming increasingly important, we will continue to respond to the needs of our schools by developing programmes that will best support them. A key approach to accommodating this shift in the classroom is Project Based Learning (PBL). In 2018, the IEB embarked on an action research project with a sample of schools, with the intention of building a community of practice. This led to the development of PBL workshops which aimed to support teachers in this process. These workshops empowered teachers to explore learning spaces that are engaging, learner-centred, collaborative and process driven. They require assessment as learning, and hence different ways of recording and reporting. Not only are schools and teachers grappling with constantly changing demands of education, they are also coming to terms with the needs and expectations of the ‘new species of learner’. Loosely called Generation Next, these learners have never known a world without the internet, smartphones or iPads. Generation Next has the innate ability to seamlessly navigate the digital world - they are as comfortable using apps and technology as we are flipping the pages of a magazine. Generation Next is driven by the need to know that they are valued and also by a need to make a meaningful difference to the world. They are intelligent, independent and want to be given choice as to how and what they learn. Training The Generation Next workshop was offered to provide advice and guidance on strategies relating to appropriate teaching and assessment methods for these learners. The workshop looked at ways of encouraging teachers to be facilitators and motivators of learning as opposed to simply deliverers of content. Close attention was also paid to sharing practical ways in which teachers could develop their learners’ skills not only in working digitally, but also in learning to work with others through the skills of collaboration, thinking interdependently, asking and answering meaningful questions. Through listening to our schools, the IEB knows that each and every learning environment is different. Hence it is not surprising that we offer customised workshops to meet their specific needs and contexts. Two workshops that lend themselves easily to adaptation are: Making Connections which considers the use of ICT in assessment and Differentiation in Teaching and Assessment which provides strategies on catering for different levels of ability in a class.Next >