Education Department responds regarding Dramatic Arts question paper 

The Department of Basic Education has noted the concerns that have been raised about a question in a Dramatic Arts paper in the matric examinations.

The Department wishes to clarify some of the reports in the media (see Mercury report). 

Firstly, there was certainly, no enactment of rape in the matric exam as suggested by some media reports. Instead in the Dramatic Arts question paper, one of the questions was based on the play, Tshepang, which depicts the rape of a nine month old baby.

A question for fifteen marks in the paper based on an extract from the play, which has won both national and international awards, highlights and interrogates a real event that was headlined in the media and that disturbed the nation, the brutal and horrific rape of a nine month old baby.

One of the questions based on the extract read as follows: Describe how you would help the actor portraying Simon to perform line 9 to maximize the horror of the rape for the audience. Line 9, to which the question refers, is a climactic moment in the play, in which the audience is faced with the Dramatic Arts concept of an action metaphor.

Instead of raping a baby or showing the rape or describing the rape, the symbols of a loaf of bread and a broom stick are used to represent and resemble the brutal act of the rape. The horror and aversion the audience feels is achieved without resorting to an actual rape. The candidate has to work out the best way to achieve this theatrically and symbolically. Nowhere is it expected of the candidate to have to literally describe the actual act of raping a 9 month old baby.

The aspects tested in the question are as per the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) for Dramatic Arts. Hence from a curriculum perspective the examiners and moderators are well within the prescripts of the curriculum. It also needs to be noted that all NSC question papers are approved by Umalusi, the external quality Assurance Council that utilizes the services of the best experts in the country to moderate these question papers.

Further, Grade 12 learners are young adults who are fully aware of the social issues confronting our country and Dramatic Arts like all other art forms are powerful vehicles for creating social awareness and education to societal issues that need to be addressed to bring about change.

Tshepang by Lara Foot Newton and similar set works form part of what is taught and assessed in class throughout the year and the learners would have been exposed to these kinds of art expressions in the course of their study of Dramatic Arts from grades 10 to 12.

The Department, however, acknowledges that in examinations, content that invokes negative or adverse feelings or emotions in candidates needs to be avoided. However, given the nature and content of Dramatic Arts, it is assumed that learners are familiar with such passages and would have been trained to deal with their personal emotions relating to the matter.

To ensure that no candidate has been negatively affected, the Department will mark a sample of the scripts of learners from all nine provinces, as it does with all question papers, after they are written, to establish any possible disadvantage to the candidates.

If there is evidence that candidates have been affected by this question, the question will be excluded from the question paper and the marking guidelines will be adjusted accordingly. The Department of Basic Education would like to once again reiterate its commitment to ensuring a fair and credible examination for all candidates.

Response by the moderator of the examination paper:

25 November 2013

RE:

Dramatic Arts

Paper 1: Written. Question Paper

National Curriculum Statement

National Senior Certificate

2013

I was asked in my capacity as Internal Moderator for the subject Dramatic Arts to respond to the following question:

I will do my best in my response to address the obvious concern that the complaint reveals. I hope to reassure the person that we deal responsibly with the young adults entrusted to us. We are aware that by the time a learner is in Grade 12 they will have begun to be faced with the realities of adulthood, often beyond the security of their homes and the school system. 

We hope to provide them with the skills and critical thinking to respond to what they encounter in their daily lives. This is one of the profound benefits of the subject Dramatic Arts, that it allows young adults to confront real matters through the safety of story. (See below, Note 5. The kind of learner that is envisaged by the NCS)

The play and question the complaint refers to, for instance, gives them the opportunity to deal with and comment on the horror of child rape functionally, critically, creatively; a response that will empower them to restore health in society. Dramatic Arts does deal with hard realities and issues of social transformation, social justice and human awareness.

For reference I have scanned in and pasted the complete question:  Question 11, see page 2. Below.

To support and frame my response, I have also included the following notes, extracted from the Dramatic Arts Subject Statement as an addendum:

Note 1: Aims of the subject Dramatic Arts

Note 2: Preamble to the constitution

Note 3: Critical outcomes of the NCS

Note 4: Human rights, inclusivity and social justice,

Note 5: The kind of learner that is envisaged by the NCS

Note 6: Developmental outcomes

Note 7: The subject context

Note 8: Learning Outcome 2: creating, interpreting and presenting

These notes are at the end of my response, from page 4-6.

The relevant question, to which I am responding, is 11.3.2:

‘Describe how you would get the actor portraying Simon to perform line 9 to maximize the horror of the rape for the audience.'

The question is from the play, Tsepang, written by Lara Foot formerly Director at the Market Theatre and currently CEO of the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town. The play won several National and International awards. This play and the extract was selected for a question, because it highlights and interrogates one of the most distressing brutalities of our current South African society.

The subject Dramatic Arts by its very nature responds to and reflects on all kinds of themes that affect our society and asks us to engage with these. It does this to raise consciousness of issues beyond the facts alone to emotional and imaginative levels that help us to perceive our humanity a little more fully. Out of this is born opportunities for healing, for restoring respect, safety, dignity, freedom, rights or any other of the things we value in a democracy. Dramatic Arts is therefore a contextual subject. It operates within a given human context, which is never ideal, conflict free or entirely just.

The play, Tsepang, is a profound example. It is based on a real event, headlined by the media, that disturbed the nation. The brutal and horrific rape of a baby is about as far as we can regress from desirable human behaviour. It is an act that shocks us so deeply that few of us, if it were not reported, would want to believe it possible. And given the facts alone, we are free to imagine it was the act of something monstrous, inhuman.

When something like this happens, as it all too often does in our society, it points to something missing or broken in the fabric of the community in which it happens.

The playwright had the courage in this instance to investigate the predicament of all of those involved in this story - the tiny victim, her mother, the perpetrator and their environment- that led to this act that mangled the lives of all of them. The terrible truth that emerges from the play is that the act was perpetrated by a recognisable human being and not a monster.  It is this essential truth that needs to be faced if we are to begin the journey of healing and of changing the circumstances that led to it.

"She (Lara Foot, the writer) employs refined, ironic humour to sketch a colourful portrait of the community. Then, by turning everyday objects into symbols, investing them with emotional connotations, we experience the horror poetically. The rape itself is enacted using a broomstick and a loaf of white bread." Review

The complaint states: ‘there is a question that required pupils to describe in ‘much horror and detail' the brutal rape of a 9-month old baby?' 

This interpretation is incorrect; the actual question in the question paper asks for something different. It asks the candidate to ‘describe how you would help the actor portraying Simon to perform line 9 to maximize the horror of the rape for the audience.'

Line 9, to which the question refers, is a climactic moment in the play, in which the audience is faced with the Dramatic Arts concept of an action metaphor. Instead of raping a baby or showing the rape or describing the rape, the symbols of a loaf of bread and a broom stick are used to represent and resemble the brutal act of the rape. The horror and aversion the audience feels is achieved without resorting to an actual rape.

This is intended, and it is up to the director and the actor playing Simon, to work out the best way to achieve it theatrically and symbolically. This is also exactly what the question asks of the candidate, nothing more. The candidate only has to explain how the symbol and metaphor of the stick and the bread can be used theatrically (the use of lighting, sound, stage, props etc.) to make an audience feel the horror of such a brutal act on such a vulnerable baby. Nowhere is it expected of the candidate to have to literally describe the actual act of raping a 9 month old baby.

Question 11 is valid and fair because the rape of babies is a relevant societal issue. In technical terms it is also asking the learner to present how, the horror of the act can be conveyed, theatrically, to an audience. This is not to create hysteria, but to sensitise an audience to the horror and, at best, to have them walk out of the theatre determined to prevent such horrific and brutal acts from being perpetrated.

It is a valid question also because it asks candidates to deliberate on social transformation and justice, to integrate and apply competence and to consider human rights, environmental and social justice. It finally requires from a candidate to respond within the framework of the subject Dramatic Arts, that is, theatrically; using symbols and metaphors to create a powerful emotional reality. This is consistent with them having to: identify and solve problems; make decisions using critical and creative thinking; collecting analysing, organising and critically evaluating information;  communicating effectively using visual, symbolic and/or language skills in various modes demonstrating an understanding of the world as a set of related systems by recognising that problem solving contexts do not exist in isolation.

See below, Note 7: The subject context: & Note 8: Learning Outcome 2: Creating, making and presenting

A subject such as the rape of a 9 month old baby, is not new to a Dramatic Arts candidate in Grade 12.  They will through media and cinema have been exposed to many horrific images and reports of, for instance, murder, xenophobia and rape. What is perhaps new is that through the subject Dramatic Arts they get to engage with it and comment on it in a critical, creative and theatrical manner.

The discussed question for instance tested two main elements:

1. Learners awareness of the brutality of the rape of a baby

2. If learners can theatrically and metaphorically portray that awareness for the audience.

These two elements represent the abilities of candidates to empathise, to analyze and to express creatively. These are important skills for those who are poised to become the leaders of the future.

In conclusion, I have asked learners from Desmond Tutu Secondary(Mbekweni, Paarl) to give me their honest opinion of the question.

Herewith their response, via the educator:

‘Although it seemed a very harsh scene in the play, my learners did not find anything shocking or out of the ordinary about the subject matter.

It is, as they said some harsh realities that they have to deal with everyday and something they fully could identify with.

They also agree that theatre is supposed to develop consciousness about the world around you and then show it creatively on stage.

They say that they've seen worst things on the TV these days.

This horror situation is familiar and part of their everyday reality, which they have to cope with.'

I have done my best to answer the complaint. I hope that I have reassured the person that the inclusion of the question was not irresponsible or careless.

Note 1:

Aims of the subject

1. Social transformation

2. Integration and applied competence

3. Human rights, inclusivity, environmental and social justice

Note 2:

The Dramatic Arts Curriculum also embraces the following preamble to the Constitutional :

Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights;

Improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person

Note 3:

The Critical Outcomes require learners to be able to:

• identify and solve problems and make decisions using critical and creative thinking;
• collect, analyse, organise and critically evaluate information;
• communicate effectively using visual, symbolic and/or language skills in various modes;
• demonstrate an understanding of the world as a set of related systems by recognising that problem solving contexts do not exist in isolation.

Note 4:

Human rights, inclusivity, environmental and social justice

The National Curriculum Statement Grades 10 - 12 (General) seeks to promote human rights, inclusitivity, environmental and social justice. All newly-developed Subject Statements are infused with the principles and practices of social and environmental justice and human rights as defined in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. In particular, the National Curriculum Statement Grades 10 - 12 (General) is sensitive to issues

Note 5:

The kind of learner that is envisaged

Of vital importance to our development as people are the values that give meaning to our personal spiritual and intellectual journeys. The Manifesto on Values, Education and Democracy (Department of Education, 2001:9-10) states the following about education and values:

Values and morality give meaning to our individual and social relationships. They are the common currencies that help make life more meaningful than might otherwise have been. An education system does not exist to simply serve a market, important as that may be for economic growth and material prosperity. Its primary purpose must be to enrich the individual and, by extension, the broader society.

The kind of learner that is envisaged is one who will be imbued with the values and act in the interests of a society based on respect for democracy, equality, human dignity and social justice as promoted in the Constitution.

The learner emerging from the Further Education and Training band must also demonstrate achievement of the Critical and Developmental Outcomes listed earlier

Note 6:

Developmental Outcomes

In addition to the above, learners emerging from the Further Education and Training band must:

• demonstrate an ability to think logically and analytically, as well as holistically and laterally; and
• be able to transfer skills from familiar to unfamiliar situations.

Note 7:

The subject context:

Dramatic Arts as a subject relies on the human being as the instrument of artistic expression and creativity. All learners (including learners with special educational needs) will develop a range of personal resources, including:

• Internal personal resources such as:
• Sensory and emotional perception (sense memory, emotional recall, empathy);
• Imagination (the use of real and imagined images creatively and transformatively);
• Discipline (self-discipline, social and artistic discipline);
• Self-esteem (personal insight, emotional satisfaction and sense of accomplishment); and
• Self-image (awareness and celebration of own identity, culture and heritage, while affirming the identity, culture and heritage of others).
• External personal resources such as:
• Movement (flexibility and versatility, aiming to increase body awareness, expressiveness, confidence and skill in movement);
• Voice (vocal skills, aiming to increase expressiveness and versatility, for the purpose of effective communication); and
• Verbal and non-verbal communication skills (including the use of spoken, sign and body languages).

Note 8:

Learning Outcome 2: Creating, making and presenting

Creative work consists of constructing and performing drama. Through a variety of dramatic forms and practices, learners explore characters and issues drawn from a text or from their own ideas, cultures and contexts. The process of creating, making and presenting encourages questioning, justifying, interpreting and shaping meaning.

Areas to be developed are:

• interpersonal skills (finding a balance between personal needs and social responsibilities, ensemble work);
• problem solving (developing skills of listening, observing, researching, co-ordinating, evaluating, initiating, inventing, constructing or acting out to solve problems creatively);
• improvisation (engaging in games, creative drama activities, free and structured improvisations, role play, explorations);
• characterisation (exploring dimensions of character - physical, social, cultural, psychological, moral - as well as character's histories, dilemmas and choices);
• acting (creating and sustaining a role using internal and external personal resources in collaboration with others);
• mime (using the basic elements of isolation, focus, physical control, size, shape, weight, use of space and energy to communicate without words);
• playmaking/playwriting (collaborating in writing or workshopping original texts);
• directing (understanding the functions and processes of directing through practical experience of directing or being directed);
• technical and technological elements (recognising the contributions of technical

Issued by the Department of Basic Education, November 27 2013

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