Toepaslikheid van geheelskoolevaluering prosesse om volhoubare skoolontwikkeling te bevorder

[摘要] English: There is a worldwide tendency amongst education authorities to focus on sustainable development of schools. Education authorities recognise evaluations and occasioned improvement plans as a prominent strategy to foster sustainable school development. Although I recognise the negative effect of the apartheid era on sustainable school development, the general standard of teaching and learning in most South African schools remains a challenge, more than twenty years after the dismantling of apartheid. There is a general concern that the quality of learning and teaching in South African schools is not at the required standard. This concern is justified by the huge drop-out rate of learners before Grade 12 and the poor performance in national and international assessments. The National Policy on Whole-School Evaluation (WSE) was initiated in South Africa, with the aim of improving the overall quality of education in schools through effective self-evaluations, credible external evaluations and constructive district support. It seems that, fifteen years after the WSE Policy was promulgated in 2001, WSE has not made a significant impact on sustainable school development in South Africa and it does not get rightful recognition in the Free State province.The literature study reveals that evaluations are necessary for sustainable school development; however, there is no agreement whether self or external evaluation, or a combination of the two, yields the best results for sustainable school development. England's inspection system was used as the basis on which the WSE Policy was developed and is therefore discussed thoroughly. England's inspection system has developed over time and focuses more on internal evaluations at all schools and external evaluations at underperforming schools. It appears that evaluations have a positive impact on school development and learner achievement.I use critical policy analysis to achieve the aim of the study, namely, to determine the potential of WSE processes to improve sustainable school development subsequent to internal and external evaluations. Critical policy analysis is relevant not only to describe the WSE Policy, but also to identify possible gaps that might hamper the effective implementation of the policy and, in the process, also sustainable school development. It appears as if the WSE Policy promotes self and external evaluations, as well as constructive district support to narrow the performance gaps between schools and to ensure that all learners are given equal opportunities to make the best use of their capabilities. The policy analysis has also identified certain gaps in the WSE Policy that contribute to the ineffective implementation of the policy.Analysis of relevant documents and interviews with different stakeholders confirm that the WSE Policy has not been officially reviewed since 2001, which could have contributed to the ineffective implementation of the policy. Qualitative research indicated further that schools are not capacitated to conduct valid self-evaluations and to develop and implement effective school improvement plans subsequent to evaluations. Other reasons for the ineffective implementation of the WSE Policy include that WSE officials are not dedicated to WSE only, districts fail to support schools after evaluations and education authorities focus on Grade 12 results and neglect other important aspects, such as WSE.Evaluations have the potential to foster sustainable school development; however, the WSE Policy is not implemented consistently in South Africa, resulting in a negative impact on school improvement. Informed by this conclusion, I made certain recommendations, not only to ensure the consistent implementation of the WSE Policy, but also to improve sustainable school development.

[发布机构] University of the Free State