Developing South Africa's National Student Assessment Framework

DEVELOPING SOUTH AFRICA’S NATIONAL STUDENT ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK

South Africa has made significant progress in expanding access to education over the past three decades. However, low learning outcomes and persistent inequalities between schools remain key challenges. Recognising the role of assessment in improving education quality, South Africa’s Department of Basic Education requested the OECD’s advice on how to further develop its National Student Assessment Framework. This Policy Brief summarises the conclusions of this analysis, and puts forward the following policy recommendations:

• Update the National Student Assessment Framework to include all major assessments and clarify their key characteristics, including their purpose and use of results. Including the General Education Certificate and the National Senior Certificate will be important as they represent key milestones in students’ progression. The Framework should also provide direction on South Africa’s school-based assessment policy in order to achieve a better balance between formative and summative functions. This may require reconsidering how assessments contribute to term or end-of-year marks. Finally, by making explicit mention of key objectives and indicators from the Strategic Plan 2025–30 in the Framework, South Africa would promote greater policy coherence and strengthen the Framework’s role in system-level monitoring, policy making and planning.

• Expand the National Student Assessment Framework to include additional standardised assessments resources. To address gaps in reliable assessment data, South Africa should consider introducing additional standardised assessment resources, such as national diagnostic assessments and an item bank, to support teaching and learning. Administering national diagnostic assessments at the start of the school year or term would help maintain their diagnostic focus and support a more balanced approach between formative and summative school-based assessment.

• Use the National Student Assessment Framework to guide the further development and implementation of South Africa’s Systemic Evaluation. While the Systemic Evaluation is well-designed, the level of detail and content of the proficiency-level descriptors vary across grades and could be improved. In mapping the assessment framework against international benchmarks, the OECD also identified a couple of areas where the content of the tests might be further developed. Any changes to the assessment should align with the revised school curriculum. South Africa might also consider piloting computer-based assessment in future Systemic Evaluation cycles. This could help shorten reporting timelines and offer additional benefits, such as improved measurement precision and strengthened data analytics.

• Further enhance the monitoring of teaching practice and teachers’ working conditions through the National Student Assessment Framework. The Systemic Evaluation Teacher Questionnaire could be strengthened in several areas, such as the monitoring of teachers’ workload and work-related stress, their professional development, and their pedagogical and assessment practices. These options should be prioritised in line with national education objectives. Field-testing the revised questionnaire would help avoid significant increases in survey length. The Framework should also provide direction on future participation in the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) and set out plans for analysing and sharing data on teachers.

This Policy Brief is part of a larger OECD technical assistance project designed to support South Africa’s Department of Basic Education in improving national assessments (see Box 3).

Why is South Africa in updating its National Student Assessment Framework?

South Africa has expanded access to education over the past three decades. However, low learning outcomes and wide inequalities between schools remain a challenge. Results from the country’s new national standardised student assessment, South Africa’s Systemic Evaluation (SASE), reveal that large shares of students in Grades 3, 6 and 9 perform at the lowest proficiency levels in reading and numeracy. In Grade 3, for example, 37% of students in 2021 were “Emerging” level readers. This means they were just beginning to develop grade-level foundational knowledge and skills and require extensive guidance and support. International assessments confirm these patterns (see Figure 1) and help explain the high rates of grade repetition and dropout later in schooling. These outcomes reflect long-standing structural inequalities among South African schools, including uneven access to qualified teachers and learning resources. In this context, South Africa’s Department of Basic Education has made raising learning outcomes a core objective in its Strategic Plan 2025-30 (Department of Basic Education, 2025[1]).

Figure 1. Low learning outcomes are a key challenge in South Africa

Note: Grade repetition rate calculated based on the number of students who will repeat in the next year, divided by the total students in the current year.

Source: A : von Daviet et al. (2024[2]), TIMSS 2023 International Results in Mathematics and Science, https://doi.org/10.6017/lse.tpisc.timss.rs6460; Mullis et al. (2023[3]), PIRLS 2021 International Results in Reading, https://doi.org/10.6017/lse.tpisc.tr2103.kb5342; B : Department of Basic Education (2024[4]), South African Systemic Evaluation 2022 Volume 2 Learner Proficiency Report.

Recognising the role assessments can play in helping to improve learning outcomes, the Department of Basic Education is now further developing the National Student Assessment Framework. This framework will set out South Africa’s overarching vision for student assessment and intends to define the primary purposes and key characteristics of different assessments (e.g. classroom-based assessments, examinations, and national standardised assessments). It will also explain how different assessments complement each other to support quality objectives across the school system, such as identifying learning gaps and providing targeted interventions to support student learning.

Features of national student assessment frameworks internationally

While national student assessment frameworks vary in form and function across countries, they have common attributes (OECD, 2013[5]). Typically presented as a policy document, national student assessment frameworks clarify the purposes of different assessments and explain how they relate to each other and national education objectives. Well-designed frameworks can strengthen accountability and public confidence in the school system by transparently reporting results. By aligning assessment, curriculum and system objectives, they can also strengthen teaching and learning and help avoid duplication and over-testing. Key features of well-designed national student assessment frameworks include:

• Clear statements of purpose that explain how assessments will support student learning and can be used to orient decisions on test design and the use and reporting of test results. For example, assessments used for system-level monitoring imply different choices in terms of test design, sample size and frequency than those used for diagnosing individual student learning;

• An overview of how assessment supports other aspirations for the school system – notably how assessments will promote the learning and pedagogical goals of the curriculum and whether and how assessments will be used for monitoring and accountability at different levels of the system; 

• A strong emphasis on ensuring coherence and balance in the use of assessments – including attention to the overall volume of assessments and duplication, and how potential tensions between the formative and summative functions will be managed. 

Features of South Africa’s draft National Student Assessment Framework

In 2022, the Department of Basic Education developed a Concept Document outlining an initial draft of South Africa’s National Student Assessment Framework (Department of Basic Education, Unpublished[6]). The Concept Document explains that the Framework intends to serve as a “basket of fit for purpose assessment programmes targeted at measuring and monitoring learning outcomes and supporting teachers in assessment practice” (ibid.). It outlines three interrelated pillars of formative, summative and system-wide wide assessments (i.e. national and international assessments). It also mentions the different assessment instruments currently in use in South Africa (see Figure 2). The Department subsequently developed a detailed PowerPoint presentation to reflect its evolving vision for the National Student Assessment Framework.

Figure 2. Figure 2. Overview of South Africa’s national assessment and survey system

Source: Developed by the authors based on the draft NAF Concept Document and supporting materials.

While the Concept Document and PowerPoint presentation have informed policy dialogue with education stakeholders, they have not been publicly released. Moreover, it is not clear how data will be used to monitor progress towards national objectives for learning set out in the Department of Basic Education Strategic Plan 2025-30. There are also some notable gaps in these supporting materials. For example, while the key characteristics of SASE are well defined (except for its frequency), there is a lack of information on school-based assessments and national examinations. Without further developing and publicly releasing the National Student Assessment Framework, it will be difficult for South Africa to promote a coherent set of assessment programmes to monitor student performance, strengthen teaching and learning and build public confidence in the school system.