1. The Western Cape Education Department (WCED)’s guidelines on the issuing of circulars, minutes and notices were announced in Circular 0006/2010 of 19 February 2010.

2. However, owing to recent changes in the structure of the WCED, it has become necessary to inform officials of the revised procedure for the issuing of circulars, minutes and notices.

3. Circulars may be signed only by the Head: Education or by the official acting in that position. A minute may be signed only by the Deputy Director-General of the branch concerned or by the official acting in that position.

4. The following information is also brought to your attention:
4.1 Circulars are normally issued to inform WCED schools and personnel of matters of particular importance, i.e. policy matters which cannot be arbitrarily amended or ignored. Minutes are normally issued by chief directorates, directorates and district offices to provide information, instructions and clarity on routine matters.
4.2 The Head Office General Registry, located on the 6th floor of the Grand Central Towers, Cape Town, assigns numbers to official WCED circulars in numeric sequence and must be contacted in this regard.
4.3 The individual directorates and district offices assign numbers in numeric sequence to their minutes and maintain registers for that purpose.
4.4 Only the Head Office General Registry is authorised to disseminate electronic communications, such as the official WCED circulars, minutes and notices, to WCED officials and schools, via the e-school and electronic mail list systems. The circulars and minutes are disseminated in PDF and therefore every effort must be made to ensure that the correct letterheads are used and that they are of a good quality. The latest WCED letterheads were issued by the Directorate: Communication on 11 January 2012.
4.5 Any notice for electronic dissemination to our schools and officials must be authorised in writing by the relevant official at the rank of Deputy Director- General or Head: Education. That written approval must accompany the notice when it is presented to the General Registry for electronic dissemination.
4.6 Once a circular, minute or notice has been approved and signed by the relevant official, a good-quality copy of the original final document, together with an electronic copy (via e-mail or on a memory stick), must be submitted without delay to the Head of General Registry for electronic dissemination.

5. Should you have any enquiries about the content of this document, please contact the official whose names appear after “Enquiries” in the above letterhead.

6. Kindly bring the content of this circular to the attention of all personnel.


SIGNED: PA VINJEVOLD
HEAD: EDUCATION
DATE: 2012:03:06