BRIEFING NOTES TO THE EDUCATION PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE

1
WHOLE-SCHOOL EVALUATION POLICY

• BRIEFING NOTES TO THE EDUCATION PORTFOLIO
  COMMITTEE
• 15 OCTOBER 2002

2
WHAT IS WHOLE-SCHOOL EVALUATION POLICY?

• WSE Policy intends to develop and maintain a
  successful implementation of educational
  monitoring and evaluation mechanisms for tracking
  the performance of the school system and report
  progress against the nine cross organisational
  aspects identified as key characteristics of
  effective schools

3
EDUCATION POLICY AND MANDATE

• Education White Paper 1995
• South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) Act
  of 1995
• National Education Policy Act (No.27 of 1996)
• Assessment Policy of December 1998
• Further Education and Training (FET) Act (No.98
  of 1998)

4
AIMS

• Moderate externally, on a sampling basis, the
  results of self-evaluation carried out by the
  schools
• Evaluate the effectiveness of a school in terms
  of the national goals, using national criteria
• Increase the level of accountability within the
  education system

5
AIMS CONT.

• Strengthen the support given to schools by
  district professional support services
• Provide feedback to all stakeholders as a means
  of achieving continuous school improvement
• Identify aspects of excellence within the system
  which will serve as models of good practice and
  
• Identify the aspects of effective schools and
  improve the general understanding of what factors
  create effective schools.

6
AREAS FOR EVALUATION

• Basic functionality of the school
• Leadership, management and communication
• Governance and relationships
• Quality of teaching and learning, and educator
  development
• Curriculum provision and resources
• Learner achievement
• School safety, security and discipline
• School infrastructure
• Parents and community.

7
APPROACH

• School-based self-evaluation
• External evaluation by the supervisory unit
  personnel trained and accredited to evaluate
  schools
• Adequate and regular district support leading to
  professional development programmes designed to
  provide assistance and advice to individual staff
  members and schools as they seek to improve their
  performance
• An agreed set of national criteria to ensure a
  coherent, consistent but flexible approach to
  evaluating performance in the education system
• Published written reports on the performance of
  individual schools
• Annual reports published by provinces and the
  Ministry on the state of education in schools.

8
DEVELOPMENTS

• 4 Provinces have fully established units
• 4 Provinces are in the process of establishing
  units
• 1 Province still not part of the process

9
REQUIREMENTS

• Province of Schools of Supervisors
• E Cape 6 178 134
• F State 2 538 44
• Gauteng 1 905 37
• KZN 5 693 109
• Limpopo 4 138 83
• Mpumalanga 2 053 40
• N Cape 468 9
• N West 2 294 41
• W Cape 1 504 27

10
RECOMMENDATIONS

• THE DEPARTMENT WILL CONTINUE TO WORK HARD TO
  ASSIST IN PROVINCES WHERE IMPLEMENTATION IS SLOW.
• ALL PROVINCES NEED TO BE PERSUADED TO SET UP
  SUPERVISORY UNITS.
• IT IS ALSO IMPORTANT TO ENSURE THAT RESOURCES FOR
  ACCESSING SCHOOLS ARE AVAILABLE.
• THE EFFICACY OF WSE IS LINKED TO THE EFFICACY OF
  PROVINCIAL INSTITUTIONS, ESPECIALLY DISTRICTS.