By More Matshediso
Pretoria - Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has announced that the department has developed a draft policy on the South African Standard for Principalship.
“This is the first time we will have such a policy in the basic education sector,” said the Minister, speaking to media in Pretoria on Friday, following a Council of Education Ministers (CEM) meeting yesterday.
Minister Motshekga said the policy will assist the sector by providing clearly defined roles of principals and the key aspects of professionalism and expertise required in such positions.
It will further serve as a template against which professional leadership and management development needs may be addressed.
The policy, she said, provides the basis for improved performance management processes applicable to principals, enhances and sustains the image, professionalism and core competencies of school principals and guides self-reflection, self-assessment and development.
The policy will inform better recruitment and selection procedures by setting standards to be used in the development of criteria for the appointment of principals.
She said numerous stakeholders were consulted during the drafting process and CEM had approved the policy for gazetting for public comment.
“It will be communicated when this policy is gazetted and we would encourage the public to participate in these processes,” she said.
School Infrastructure
Minister Motshekga said the department had just completed the 108th state-of-the-art school through the Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Development Initiative (ASIDI).
The 108th school was handed over to the community of De Doorns in the Western Cape earlier this week.
“… to date, we have completed 425 sanitation projects, 499 water projects and 289 electricity projects in schools across the country.
“The schools build programme aims to address national backlogs in classrooms, libraries, computer labs and administrative buildings, basic services; thereby improving the learning and teaching environment,” said the Minister.
All MEC’s have agreed to keep prioritising the delivery of school infrastructure, including furniture where it is found to be lacking.
She said the CEM also agreed that basic services such as water, sanitation and electricity must be prioritised.
“We will continue to develop improved, coordinated, integrated plans that comply with the regulations and financing of infrastructure, without compromising the provision of quality infrastructure and equity of provision,” said Minister Motshekga.
Eradicating exam irregularities
With regard to the incidents of group copying, the department uncovered for the first time during the 2014 National Senior Certificate examinations, Minister Motshekga said the CEM had made few recommendations to prevent the recurrence of the irregularities.
Public examination centres across each province will be categorised into three risk categories and the invigilation procedure will be determined based on the risk category.
She explained that high risk centres will be administered by the province or district, while the medium risk centres will be invigilated based on placement of resident monitors, and low risk centres will be administered by the school with a roving monitor.
Also, hotlines will be set up in provinces where learners or teachers will be able to report irregularities.
“In the case of the KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Eastern Cape provinces, the DBE will appoint a resident monitor at provincial level to monitor all examination processes from the beginning of the cycle until the end of the cycle.
“Such a resident monitor will report to the DBE on a weekly basis,” the Minister said. - SAnews.gov.za
