District offices of the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) will deploy circuit teams and other specialists to help develop the capacity of schools to provide quality education.

This is one of the measures that the WCED is taking to address the findings of the department's latest whole school evaluation (WSE) in selected Western Cape schools.

Linda Rose, Director of Quality Assurance (QA) at the WCED, explained the department's approach to WSE at a meeting of the Standing Committee on Education in the Provincial Legislature today (11 October 2007).

WSE forms part of a national system of school evaluation and looks at nine focus areas. The aim is to encourage continuous self-evaluation by schools and ongoing school improvement.

The QA directorate will identify trends every six months from evaluations conducted every six months. The trend reports will highlight issues needing attention by both schools and education support structures.

The directorate evaluated 27 schools between February and July 2007 and produced detailed reports for the nine focus areas. The study found that Focus Area Four needed the greatest attention.

Focus area four includes educator planning, subject knowledge, teaching strategies, use of resources, classroom management, assessment, homework management, lesson evaluation and development opportunities organised by the school.

The findings included the need for further training and support on the National Curriculum Statement, subject knowledge and assessment.

WCED will address the issues raised using a number of measures, including support by circuit teams and specialised individuals based in district offices, and ensuring that every school has a school improvement plan.

Other WCED directorates will attend to specific issues, for example, school safety. The WCED will play increased attention to ongoing monitoring and evaluation to hold all role players accountable, among other QA activities.

The WCED's Chief Directorate: Planning has organised a series of seminars to develop a common understanding of the issues affecting quality education. Participants include teachers, principals, academics and officials.

Enquiries:

Gert Witbooi
Media Liaison Officer
Office of the MEC for Education
Western Cape
Tel: 021 467 2523
Fax: 021 425 5689
Visit our website: http://wced.wcape.gov.za

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