| 1. |
Enclosed is a copy of the provincial report on 2004 Grade 6 Systemic Evaluation and also a CD containing the national report of that same evaluation. Both reports highlight the importance of monitoring and evaluation in providing high quality education. These reports will provide useful guidance in those strategies and interventions designed to provide support to schools.
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| 2. |
It is in your best interests to study the provincial report as it gives useful information on the education system’s progress w.r.t. the transformational goals of access, quality, efficiency and equity, and how these goals have impacted on learner achievement.
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| 3. |
Even though the study was conducted in 2004, the findings are still relevant in 2006. Apart from reporting on learner achievement at the provincial level, the findings are broken down further per EMDC. Officials in the support services across the province will make use of the recommendations to monitor and provide support to the schools.
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| 4. |
When reading a report of this nature, it is easy to over-generalise on the findings. Owing to the diversity among schools, it is important to look critically at the various factors that have or have not contributed to learner achievement. For example, “Attendance at Pre-primary” (page 81) appears only seventeenth in the list of correlations with learner achievement. Yet, in Paragraph 5.4.16 (page 93), the report states that ”Learners who attended pre-primary schools usually did better”. This indicates that one has to look at the findings from different angles in order to understand the contributing factors.
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| 5. |
If one looks in the same analytical way at indicators such as school safety, discipline, school fees, small class size and parental involvement and perceptions, one realises that there are many factors that influence learner achievement and that a thorough study of the report is needed if schools are to benefit from the systemic evaluation.
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| 6. |
We wish you well in all your endeavours to promote quality education in all our schools.
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SIGNED: L.J. ROSE
HEAD: EDUCATION
DATE: 2006:04:05
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