Question 210
Mr M J R de Villiers (DA-WC) to ask the Minister of Basic Education:
(1) Whether the Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS) is prevalent in all schools; if not, (a) why not, (b) in which schools is it not prevalent and
(c) What is the reason for this; if so, what are the relevant details;
(2) Whether her department gave any written submissions to the principals of the schools where the IQMS is not prevalent; if not, (a) why not and (b) what follow-up (i) programmes and (ii) procedures were followed to check that the plan was implemented; if so, (aa) what are the relevant details and (bb)who was responsible to do these follow-ups;
(3) Whether the officials who did not do the follow-ups received any performance bonuses; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details?
Answer:
1. All schools are expected to implement the Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS) in terms of the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) Collective Agreement 8 of 2003. The responsibility of the DBE is to monitor the IQMS processes and procedures in the provinces. According to the statistics on the IQMS implementation received from provinces, 307 416 i.e. 82.17% of educators were evaluated in 2009 evaluation cycle. This information is available in the IQMS Annual Report for the period April 2009 to March 2010.
According to information gathered from reports of external IQMS moderators, 1 577 schools i.e. 20.2 percent of the 7 816 schools visited during the period April 2009 to March 2010 did not comply with the implementation of the IQMS. Since the appointment of external IQMS moderators in August 2008 to June 2010, a total of 13 529 schools were visited, out of which 2 315 were not implementing the IQMS. Follow up visits were conducted in 1 804 schools during the same period.
(a) The reasons for the non-evaluation of the educators in the schools, amongst others were:
- Educators on sick leave
- Educators in the post for less than 12 months
- Educators deceased
- Resignations
- Educators who refused to be assessed.
The reasons for non-implementation of the IQMS in schools, amongst others, are the following:
- lack of proper, coordinated and standardised training for educators
- lack of understanding of the purposes of the IQMS
- insufficient capacity to manage the IQMS
- lack of proper leadership in managing the IQMS processes in schools
- resistance by Labour Unions, particularly in some parts of Mpumalanga and Eastern Cape.
(b) In terms of the categorisation of schools, there is a high level of non-implementation in underperforming schools where the matric pass rate is less than 60 percent, as well as schools in rural areas with lack of proper facilities.
(c) The reasons for the non-implementation of the IQMS in the above categories of schools are, amongst others, the following:
- inadequate resources
- poor leadership and management
- lack of proper training
- Staff Development Teams (SDTs) lack the capacity to manage the IQMS processes
- inadequate monitoring by the provinces.
2. Yes. Provincial officials and external IQMS moderators provided all schools that were visited with a report on where they are not complying with IQMS processes.
Furthermore, schools that were found not to be implementing IQMS were advised on the importance of being compliant, and also given training and support.
Provinces were also informed of these schools and requested to conduct ongoing monitoring and support. Their observations and recommendations were contained in the report that was also signed by the principal, and a copy left at the school.
(a) N/A
(b) (i) Provincial IQMS coordinators conducted follow-up visits to 1 454 schools from April 2009 to March 2010. During the same period external IQMS moderators did follow-up visits to 1350 schools across all provinces.
The purpose of these visits was to monitor whether the recommendations in their first report to school were implemented and to provide further support where necessary. Workshops were also conducted with district officials and educators in order to provide further support and development.
(ii) During follow-up visits to schools, external moderators followed the following process:
- Met with the principal and the Staff Development Team (SDT)
- Perused through the IQMS documents
- Verified support and developmental activities offered by the schools
- Discussed progress made on the moderator’s recommendation contained in the first school visit report
- Checked whether learner progress was being considered during evaluations
- Discussed the type of support rendered by the district office
- Provided guidance and further support
- Compiled a follow-up report for the school.
Officials from the Department of Basic Education (DBE) visited provinces to provide support where necessary. Schools were also visited to monitor the work of the moderators.
(aa) Information provided in 2(b) (i) and (ii) above.
(bb) Follow-up visits to schools were conducted by officials from the Department of Basic Education, provincial and district IQMS coordinators as well as external IQMS moderators.
3. The payment of a performance bonus to officials does not depend only on follow-up visits on IQMS, but also on other responsibilities as contained in their respective work-plans.
Source: Department of EducationÂ
