BRIEFING NOTES TO THE EDUCATION PORTFOLIO

COMMITTEE15 OCTOBER 2002

WHOLE-SCHOOL EVALUATION POLICY

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:

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)

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;

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.

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.

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.

DEVELOPMENTS

4 Provinces have fully established units

4 Provinces are in the process of establishing units

1 Province still not part of the process

REQUIREMENTSProvince #of Schools # of SupervisorsE Cape 6 178 134F State2 538 44Gauteng 1 905 37KZN 5 693 109Limpopo 4 138 83Mpumalanga 2 053 40N Cape 468 9N West 2 294 41W Cape 1 504 27

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.