Speech delivered by the Deputy Minister of Basic Education Honourable Mr. Enver Surty at the July 2015 District Directors’ Meeting held at Sol Plaatje House, Pretoria
Honourable Minister
Acting DG
All DBE Senior Managers
District Directors,
Ladies and gentlemen
I would like to start by sharing with you some words of wisdom and encouragement from the father of our nation, former president Mandela, especially in this month as we celebrate what would have been his 97th birthday next week on 18 July when he said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”.
These words still remain powerful as ever when one considers the space we find ourselves operating in. Tata Madiba also went on to implore us to search our inner being when he said “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children”. We can indeed reflect on these words of wisdom as we take stock of what we have managed to achieve at this point in time and what we hope to achieve at the end of the 2015 academic year.
As the Ministry we want to express our gratitude for the good work that you are doing despite the numerous systemic challenges that you continue to encounter on a daily basis.
It is still important for us to jointly reflect on the essence of this forum with regard to, among others:
- Sharing best practices and ideas to improve the achievement of learning outcomes;
- District Directors taking responsibility for their respective areas of jurisdiction;
- Pursuit of excellence and quality by Provincial Education Departments (PEDs) and districts as they prepare for both the Annual National Assessments (ANA) and the National Senior Certificate (NSC) trial exams; and
- The acknowledgement of the challenges that still exist, which the sector continues to address.
Data analysis and utilisation in the system remain critical if we are to intervene meaningfully to improve learner performance and learning and teaching overall. Research[1] into schooling systems that have been successful in leveraging data shows that they were able to:
- Proactively and regularly use data to track system performance and to identify whether learner outcomes are improving;
- Foster data-driven decision-making allocating attention and resources to areas of highest need; and
- Develop robust tools and infrastructure to support data-driven processes.
Aligned with our efforts of increasing data usage to drive positive change and efficiency in the school system, a unique collaboration between the Department of Basic Education and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation (MSDF) emerged.
The Data Driven Districts (DDD) project is aimed at improving learner outcomes by using data to inform decision-making and intervention planning. A powerful, easy-to-use management dashboard has been created, allowing officials and educators to visualise and track data for key learning outcomes identified as essential during the research phase of the project.
As you are aware, the DDD project was successfully launched in seven pioneer districts in the Free State (Thabo Mofutsanyane), Limpopo (Waterberg) and the Ekudibeng Region in Gauteng. Participating officials report that they have derived considerable benefit from the dashboard as well as the capability building that goes with it.
More than a 1000 district and school officials have been trained in data collection, using South African School Administration and Management System (SA-SAMS), and dashboard data usage. They have also been coached on how to analyse and make use of data to inform intervention planning.
The project has increased visibility of and focus on performance across the system, and has therefore enabled educators, principals and district officials (in the pioneer districts) to use data to identify areas of concern, and to respond or intervene accordingly. These three provinces are now in the process of expanding the work to all other districts in their respective provinces.
Following a decision at the last Heads of Education Departments Committee (HEDCOM) workshop in April this year, HoD’s from the various provinces endorsed implementation of the project in the remaining 6 provinces. The provinces can now engage with the DDD project team to determine their individual readiness to implement the project and will be expected to report on progress at every subsequent HEDCOM until we achieve full implementation across the country.
The appetite for a data driven culture to decision making in the education sector was confirmed at the recent SchoolNet Conference held in KwaZulu-Natal from 1-3 July 2015 where data related sessions showcasing SA-SAMS, the DDD Dashboard and the Department’s overall e-Administration strategy were oversubscribed. The Foundation and the Department of Basic Education remain extremely committed to the project and are in the process of signing an MOU that will govern the collaboration going forward.
I thank you
