Pearson Marang Education Trust

Baseline Study Report

2015

School Functionality

Trends across 20 schools in the

Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District

North West Province

CONFIDENTIALThis report is intended for Officials in the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District only

January 2016

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INTRODUCTIONThis report is based on information gathered in the 20 schools selected by the District to participate in the PMET School Support Programme from 2015 - 2018. The information was gathered during a baseline study conducted in the schools between August and November 2015. The information was gathered in the following ways:

Interviews with the principals, SMTs, teachers and district officials who work in or with the 20 schools

Ongoing observations of day-to-day leadership, management, teaching and learning activities in each school

Document reviews of DBE policies, school policies, teacher portfolios/lessons plans, and learner exercise books in each school

Learner assessments in Mathematics and Reading to Learn in Grades 3, 6 & 9.

This report presents: A summary of the trends in strengths and areas requiring

support across the 20 schools

An outline of the support programme PMET proposes to implement to support the schools to address the areas requiring support over the next 3 years.

The support programme will be reviewed in an impact report at the end of each year of implementation to ensure that it is adapted to address the school’s needs in each of the 3 years.

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PART 1: Contextual factors impacting on teaching and learning

a) Broad Contextual realities The majority of the learners in all the schools are from poor

backgrounds, where families depend mostly on social grants. Most of the learners come from households that are headed by

grandparents, for a variety of reasons. As a result of the above, most schools encounter lack of parental

supervision in terms of school work at home Most schools are faced with burglary and security problems,

which calls for some sort of guidelines on security measures. The majority of the schools have more learners than they can

accommodate, for various reasons. This is why overcrowding is common in the schools

Some learners are transported from neighboring villages and farms, causing problems of late coming, non-attendance to extra-classes, etc.

The majority of the SGBs in the schools lack the capacity to function effectively

b) Culture of teaching and learning

Strengths In most schools there was evidence of real teaching and

learning taking place All schools operated with time-tables and improvised in terms

of staffing that was inadequate

Areas requiring support Improved working relations amongst staff members and all

stakeholders Increased accountability placed on individuals in terms of their

roles and responsibilities

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c) Practices at schools

Strengths Teamwork evident where projects and programmes are

involved e.g. preparing and holding the annual matric farewell function

A high level of cleanliness and hygiene seen in most schools, with surroundings pleasing to the eye

Areas requiring support Improvement in teamwork and interpersonal relations

amongst staff members Intra and inter-school networking and planning, to ensure

quality across the schools

d) Attitudes impacting on teaching

Strengths Teachers attend to their classes effectively Most schools display cultures such as daily briefings, subject

PSFs, etc.

Areas requiring support Low morale in most of the educators Effective application of policies such as PAM, to deal with

issues of absenteeism and leave that is abused

e) Learners per phase

Strengths The dropout rate across all schools is very minimal, often as a

results of family relocations and transfers Schools try to accommodate learners despite accommodation

challenges

Areas requiring support/areas that present challenges

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As stated earlier, the majority of the schools have big numbers, even though they have problems accommodating these learners

The latter situation requires improved planning by SMTs The learner-teacher ratios in these schools are sometimes at

1: 50

f) Teachers, post levels and teacher: learner ratios

Schools without a Principal

Schools without a Deputy

Schools without HODs

Proportion of Unqualified teachers

Trends in Teacher: learner ratios

1.Monnaphang Primary2.Tong Comprehensive

1.Kgosikeehe Primary2. Pule Leeuw

Batlhaping High(1)Thuto Lesedi(2)Ganyesa Primary(1)Mokgosi(2)Moeti(1)Pule Leeuw(2)Tshanake(1)

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35% Varies across the schools.Most are at 1:40

Strength Despite challenges of vacancies, schools improvised and ensured

teaching and monitoring was done.

Areas requiring support/presenting challenges DBE to ensure filling of vacant posts, particularly SMT posts Training of unqualified, university graduate teachers District officials need to capacitate HODs to monitor all subjects

within their scope of supervision

g) Support from district

Strengths

Leadership and Management Support: Regular visits by Circuit Managers and EMGD officials

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Workshops and meetings Accountability sessions

Curriculum Support: Professional Support Forums held Content training done School visits done on an ongoing basis

Areas requiring support Regular, on-site support for SMTs, particularly in schools with newly

appointed principals On-site, practical classroom support to educators

PART 2: Learner Results - PMET assessments Grade 3, 6 & 9

Overview of trends in learner results

Mathematics

StrengthsLearners’ performance at average percentage.

Grade 3 Grade 6 Grade 9

64% 48% 47%

The results show that Foundation phase is doing well compared to Intermediate and Senior phases. They did very well in Math and were writing in home language.

Areas requiring support The results indicate that more support is needed in the Intermediate

phase and senior phase in terms of mathematics.

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Reading to learnStrengthsThe learners performed at average percentage levels.

Grade 3 Grade 6 Grade 9

28% 25% 42%

Areas requiring support The results show that most learners assessed in all grades have

very weak reading skills in English. They will require a great deal of support in order to develop the reading skills to learn all subjects across the curriculum meaningfully in English.

Performance is not satisfactory at all, almost all learners’ responses were inadequate in other questions as they were only responding without considering the mark allocation, and not discussing enough. Leaners need exposure to various and regular supervised assessments.

PART 3: Teaching, learning and assessment

a) Implementation of CAPS

Strengths All educators have CAPS policy documents for all learning areas CAPS as a policy is implemented in all schools Teachers teach in accordance with the ATPs

Areas requiring support Effective use of textbooks and learner books Systems to track implementation of ATPs across all subjects

b) Lesson preparation and planning

Strengths Educators make use of lesson plans provided by subject advisors

and others use templates to design their own plans Such lesson plans are monitored by HODs on a regular basis

Areas requiring support

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Schools need to be encouraged to do team and phase planning wherever possible

Monitoring and moderation of work needs to be intensified

c) Content coverage

Strengths The practice of extra and Saturday classes is commendable ATPs are followed in most schools, implying content coverage

Areas requiring support High schools need to focus in all grades, not just Grade 12 Again, the issue of a tracking system to ensure ATP implementation

is needed

d) Teaching methods

Strengths Educators try to teach using a variety of methods, especially those

that get learners involved Use is made of available teaching media

Areas requiring support Capacitating educators with strategies to reach all learners in big

classes Educators need capacity to source and use own media to enhance

their teaching

e) Use of available resources (textbooks, DBE workbooks, Charts, Readers etc.)

Strengths Teachers use textbooks, teachers guides and their own materials to

prepare their lessons Use is also made of past question papers to drill learners In the primary schools, educators use workbooks effectively in their

teaching

Areas requiring support Enhanced and proper use of CAPS documents

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Design and use of teaching aides to enhance learning Effective retrieval systems in place to ensure availability and

maintenance of resources

f) Learner assessment

Strengths Learners are assessed as per CAPS requirements Common tasks are administered in certain instances, for quality

assurance Use of previous question papers serve to train learners

Areas requiring support Tasks need to be monitored to ensure quality in terms of varying

cognitive levels Post examination item analysis to identify challenges and possible

strategies to overcome such challenges

g) Learner performanceThe observations made here are in relation to learner performance in the first two terms for all the 20 schools.

Strengths The learners in the foundation Phase in all the primary schools

performed better than those in the INTERSEN In high schools, those learners in the GET underperformed

compared to the FET

Areas requiring support Interventions to improve performance in the INTERSEN and GET

phases in schools Focused interventions to improve performance in key subjects,

especially Mathematics and English

h) LOLT

Strength The FET learners perform very well in the LOLT and consequently in

most content subjects

Areas requiring support Effective introduction of English in the foundation phase

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Proper transition of learners from Grade 3 to the foundation phase were English is the LOLT

i) Classroom Management

Strengths In most classes learners are disciplined and educators are in control Despite big classes, educators try to involve learners in the learning

experience

Areas requiring support Clear classroom rules to be established Overcrowded classrooms are a challenge in terms of control

PART 4: School functionality

a) Availability of key policies ( IQMS, WSE, CAPS, PAM & NNSSF)

Strengths Almost all schools are in possession of the ELRC file with all DBE

policies Schools have internal policies that enable them to function optimally

e.g. code of conduct, admission policy, etc. Schools have such policies neatly filled for ease of reference

Areas requiring support In some schools, because of poor handover procedures, policies are

non-existent. Where policies are found, some are outdated and therefore need to

be reviewed

b) Implementation of DBE policies

Strengths IQMS and WSE are annually reviewed policies that most schools do CAPS is also implemented by most schools

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Areas requiring support Enhanced and effective implementation of IQMS and WSE Capacitating all stakeholders on key DBE policies of NNSSF and

PAM, this to ensure common understanding

c) Leadership practices ( Principal & SMT)

Strengths Participatory and delegation observed in most schools Despite challenges of staffing, lack of resources, etc., all the schools

are fairly functional

Areas requiring support Improved human relations amongst SMT members, as without it

schools tend to be divided Principals to focus more on curriculum management, as this is their

core duty

d) Curriculum Management

Strengths There are monitoring and moderation schedules in most of the

schools Some of the schools conduct regular departmental meetings as

indicated in the schedules Monitoring and moderation tools are obtained in the educator’s files

Areas requiring support Phase and departmental planning need to be emphasized High schools do not have meetings as per requirements, citing

workload as a challenge. Classroom observation should form part of the internal monitoring,

this will assist in the IQMS process

PART 5: Conclusion

Conclusions

Key strengths to build on

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Generally the 20 schools are doing well, despite the socio-economic challenges

Schools have strong SMTs and most are functional Educators show a lot of commitment and are really focused in the

teaching of our children Despite the challenge of vacant HODs posts, schools improvised and

monitoring was done, albeit not as intensive as expected. District officials do support educators and SMTs

Areas requiring support over the next 3 years Schools can do with focused, intensive, on-site support by district

officials The Post Provisioning Model requires familiarization with the

realities of the challenges faced by schools The district has a lot of educators who are university graduates

(unqualified). A database of such educators need to be available Interventions to capacitate the latter educators need to be

organized The general trend of Foundation phase learners outperforming

INTERSEN learners need to be interrogated So is the same phenomenon in high schools, where GET learners

perform poorly compared to those in the FET LTSM management requires attention in most of the schools. Most

schools spend on buying LSTM on a yearly basis. This despite the expected norm of a book’s lifespan of 3 yearsPolicies on induction of personnel, be they newly appointed or promoted, need attention in most schools.

RecommendationsFollowing the observations made in this report, PMET propose to offer support to the schools as follows:

Proposed support program for 2016

School Leadership and Management

Support SMTs to: Understand their roles and responsibilities more clearly in

accordance with the PAM policy prescripts

Enhance their leadership and management roles

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Implement the key policies of NNSSF, WSE, CAPS and IQMS

Manage curriculum effectively

Improve general school management

Improve SGB involvement in the general running of the school

Establish functional structures e.g. induction committee

Curriculum Implementation

Implement the school support programme agreed upon with the schools through a combination of training workshops and site-based coaching and mentoring.

Depending on the needs of each school, the focus of the programme is to develop the capacity of teachers to improve learner results across the curriculum by understanding & implementing:

CAPS effectively and inclusively Systematic use of LTSMs across the curriculum Effective teaching, learning and assessment methods

across the curriculum The increased use of English as LOLT across the curriculum

(by teachers and learners) Effective teaching, learning and assessment methods in

Mathematics Improved conceptual understanding and content

knowledge of Mathematics

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