Malan, the Prime Minister at the time, expressed the view that "the path to peace and goodwill lies in accepting the fact that separate population groups exist, and in giving each group the opportunity to develop its ambitions and capabilities in its own area , or within his own community; on his own lines, in the service of his own people" (Horrell 1963:3). This was known as the Development Assessment System (DAS) and was the result of an agreement reached by the Education Labor Relations Board (ELRB) on 28 July 1998. The RAVO is a council which, among other things, is responsible for maintaining and promoting work in education. It was designed to ensure that there was democratic participation of the assessor in the assessment process.
Research problems and objectives
The researcher's interest in choosing this topic was to explore what is involved in the IQMS process and also to assess whether this policy was actually achieving teachers' personal and professional development as intended. The researcher's main interest was to find out why teachers experience problems in implementing the IQMS. Are the time frames realistic for the implementation of the IQMS. How does IQMS differ from previous evaluation tools?
Conclusion
Does IQMS serve the interests of department officials or educators or both.
LITERATURE REVIEW
- Introduction
- The concept of teacher ‘appraisal’ or ‘evaluation’
- Teacher assessment and staff development in the United States
- Teacher appraisal and performance in the United Kingdom
- Performance appraisal in New Zealand
- Conclusion
Bell makes a claim that "the main purpose of staff appraisal is to improve the quality and organization of teaching and learning in schools", he quotes Nisbet (1986:16) who argues:. must be beneficial in its effect. For them, "the organization of teaching and learning and teacher collaboration also influence forms of assessment and curriculum development within the school" (Hopkins and Stern 1996:504). Parents and public officials have a stake in the. bottom line' – the effects of teaching on student outcomes.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
- Introduction
- Public Policy
- Agenda Setting
- Policy Adoption
- Policy Implementation
- Implementation
- Models of implementation
- Street-level bureaucrats
- Conclusion
Policy evaluation is therefore "the assessment of the overall effectiveness of a national policy in meeting its objectives..." (Dye 2005:332). The point is that political goals must be linked to the means to achieve them. The reason is precisely that "...the attitudes of local officials and the actions of clients are among the factors that influence implementation" (Anderson 2003:195).
Berman (1978) also argues that "the effective power to determine the outcome of policy therefore lies not in the hands of the original policy makers, but in local implementers operating at the level of micro-implementation" (Cloete and Wissink 2000:173). The authors further see forward mapping as "the specification of a chain of behaviors that link policy to desired outcomes" (Prav tam 2005:280). An advanced mapper assumes that the steps of the plan will proceed smoothly as planned.
The purpose of backward mapping is to change the behavior of actors and recipients who can sabotage the policy reform, so that these actors are positively imbued with the policy's intentions. Both the ability of the organization and the availability of resources to implement the policy are ascertained. Lipsky (1980:82) states that "the problem of street-level bureaucrats is a problem of decision-making under conditions of considerable uncertainty, where satisfactory resource allocation decisions must be derived personally as well as organizationally".
Much of the exemplary behavior of street bureaucrats and many of their characteristic subjective actions can be understood as responses to the problems of street bureaucracy.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
Research design .1 Selection of schools
- Selection of respondents
- Data collection
- Data analysis
The five post level one educators per school were randomly selected based on voluntary participation in the research. Since all the ranks of teachers need professional development and salary increase, the researcher used non-probability sampling, especially purposive sampling to select respondents. Reference was made to the fact that the researcher is the study leader of these six secondary schools that were targeted.
Three different interview schedules were conducted: one for the principals, one for the head of department and one for five post-level 1 teachers in each secondary school. The researcher first conducted the primary data collection by distributing semi-structured interview schedules to the respondents to reduce the tension in writing down their responses. The researcher then made a follow-up survey by recording these, which helped to fill in some omissions and clarify some issues in the written version of the responses.
The social actor's perspective is emphasized to understand respondents' interpretations, experiences and meanings of the problem under analysis. Respondents did not write their names on the interview schedules and the names of schools were kept confidential. The focus of the analysis was to investigate how IQMS was implemented in schools; what were the challenges and successes experienced; what were the coping mechanisms adopted and what were their recommendations.
Also some of the relevant existing data from the Ministry of Education was examined, such as policy documents, reports and criticism.
Ethical Issues .1 Informed consent
- Voluntary participation
- Confidentiality
- Limitations of the study
This research was carried out by insiders comprising the SEM as a researcher, principals, HODs and PL1 educators from six secondary schools in the Department of Education. It is hoped that education policy makers will benefit from this fresh insider view that emerges from the street-level bureaucrats as implementers of policy. The challenges and successes of implementing GGBS will be dealt with in the next chapter by conducting an empirical study on anecdotal responses from the participants.
FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS
Principals
- Experiences with IQMS
- The use of IQMS and the problems with its use
- IQMS as an appraisal instrument
- The difference between IQMS and DAS and the preference with reasons Most principals indicated that they did not understand DAS and thus were unable to make
- The implementation of IQMS in school context
- Time sufficiency to implement this system
- Support received from the Departmental Officials
- Enhancement of the system by 1% increase
- Recommendations to make this system to be more efficient
Although IQMS is implemented in all six high schools, it takes place as an event rather than a process. From the above discussion, one gets a picture that the implementation of IQMS rests heavily on the attachment of 1% salary progression to the instrument. Different opinions were expressed regarding catering to specific school contexts when implementing IQMS.
The implementation of IQMS addresses my school - the institution itself and the stakeholders need to be evaluated to improve performance. Only two out of six high school principals gave a positive answer, i.e. the principals at school A and B. This also reflects that the principal has not understood how IQMS is to be implemented.
As far as the principals of schools B, C, D, E and F are concerned, there is little or no departmental support. There is a belief in schools that even internal processes within a particular school should be monitored by the SEMs. 43 It is therefore the duty of SMT and SDT to ensure that IQMS is implemented correctly in their school.
We can therefore conclude from the above comments that GGBS is in fact implementable due to the 1% incentive attached to it.
Heads of Departments
- IQMS as an appraisal instrument
- How the IQMS should be implemented
- The difference between IQMS and DAS and the preference with reasons
- Making the system more effective
- Perceptions of IQMS as an appraisal instrument
- Its professional benefits
- Making this system more effective
- Evaluation experience of IQMS
This statement raises questions when considering the effectiveness of IQMS in such schools. Another challenge raised was that of lack of time which sometimes results in haphazard implementation of IQMS. 48 Too much paperwork was one of the challenges raised which added more stress to the already stressed educators.
We need more and more workshops so that we can do the right things with the IQMS. It gives teachers the power to stand before students with confidence. One of the teachers was not at all happy with the way the implementation process marred the professional benefits of the IQMS.
A summary of the main concerns will be presented in the next discussion and conclusion section. Most of the suggestions for more effective implementation of the IQMS stem from the challenges highlighted by all respondents in the six secondary schools. Most of the educators of school C highlighted the issue of adequate monitoring of the implementation of the IQMS.
Senior education officers should be involved in effective monitoring of the system to monitor the scoring against performance. In this chapter, the challenges and successes of the implementation of GGBS in selected schools are captured from the respondents as implementers of the policy. Different themes emerged from the responses that reflect the respondents' meanings and understandings of the GGBS as it is implemented in their individual schools.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
The data collected aimed to answer the research questions regarding the implementation of IQMS in the six secondary schools targeted by the researcher. The problem in schools was the low standard of teaching and learning, which the Government (DoE) addressed with the introduction of IQMS, which was supposed to improve the situation in the teaching profession. To this question, the majority of respondents said "No", some of the reasons being that IQMS has too much paperwork and adds more burden to the already overburdened lecturers.
There are structures within schools that have the responsibility to ensure the implementation of the GGBS with the support of the departmental officials. One would therefore expect the street level bureaucrats (SBSs, SDTs and post level one educators) to accept the grassroots argument that "implementation should focus on lower level officials and how they interact with their clients". The sixth question dealt with the availability of resources for the implementation of the GGBS.
Elmore states that backward mapping begins not with a statement of intent, but with a statement of specific behavior at the lowest level of the implementation process that creates the need for policy. Most respondents stated that they do this in two cycles, i.e. basic (formative) and summative evaluation. Some say they do it as an event rather than a process, others say they implement IQMS haphazardly due to overload and time constraints.
As the focus of this research was not the evaluation of the implementation process of the IQMS, it is difficult to generate key recommendations about the instrument.
A study of the implementation of the developmental assessment system in a former DET Primary School in the Pinetown District of KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education and Culture. The Real and the Ideal”: Teacher roles and competencies in South African policy and practice. A study of the implementation of the developmental assessment system in a former KZNDEC High School in the Inanda District of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education and Culture.
Staff development programs associated with good academic performance in the Lesotho Primary School Final Examination: A study of four primary schools in Mafikeng District.
Appendix A: Interview Schedule - Principals
Appendix B: Interview Schedule - HODs
Appendix C: Interview Schedule – Post-level-one educators
