Days are numbered for automatic progression
Lerato Maleke | Tuesday February 17, 2015 17:23
Moved by the Mogoditshane MP, Sedirwa Kgoroba, the motion sought to abolish automatic promotion of learners at all levels from Standard One to Form Five.
Assistant Education Minister, Unity Dow amended the original motion to read: “that government implements recommendation 23 of the Revised National Policy on Education, which abolishes automatic promotion and replaces it with assessed progression”.
When presenting his motion, Kgoroba argued that automatic promotion promoted laziness among learners as they did not work hard knowing that they would “easily sweep through to another level” even if they failed.
Kgoroba further said the current automatic progression posed a threat to academic excellence and covered quality assessment which learners were able to slip through.
“If a student does not do well in Form Three and is allowed to pass to Form Four, the same student later fails. Sometimes that student is bored in class because they don’t know what the teacher is talking about,” he said.
Moreover, the legislator said automatic promotion had allowed parents room to neglect their children’s studies as everything was left to teachers.
Gantsi North MP, Noah Salakae questioned why the motion was only being debated now when the Revised National Policy on Education had been dopted two decades ago. He also demanded to know why a previous similar motion had been unsuccessful as it could have been resolved a long time ago.