1. According to Collective Agreement 8 of 2003, every school is required to submit a School Improvement Plan (SIP) reflecting the activities in which a school will engage in order to improve its overall performance. Primarily, the improvement in performance is reflected in improved learner achievement. We wish to thank all schools who have satisfied this requirement of the collective agreement.
2. Since then the Education Laws Amendment Act, 2007 (Act 31 of 2007) has been passed in parliament in December 2007. This act requires schools to prepare and submit an academic performance improvement plan (APIP) to the Head of Education of the province. Within the Western Cape it has been decided that the SIP will be used to reflect the information that is required by the APIP. The reasons for this are the following:
  • All schools have already completed their SIPs.
  • It would be easy for schools to amend their SIP, by providing the information specified in Annexure B.
  • The SIP will contain all the information, including learner achievement targets, that a school needs in order to co-ordinate and focus its efforts.
  • District support officials will be able to use the SIP as a comprehensive source on which to base their development and support.
3. Schools are, therefore, requested to revisit their SIPs (QA 8 and QA 9) in order to make the following amendments:
3.1 The heading "Performance Indicators" in QA9 must be changed to read "Targets", and the column must now be used to reflect the targets for the relevant activity.
3.2 The "Targets" for the Focus Area: Learner Achievement are of primary importance for the purpose of the SIP and APIP, although targets for all other priorities are essential.
4. Attached to this minute are the following:
  • The amended SIP template [QA8 & QA9] (Annexure A)
  • Guidelines (Annexure B & B1) indicating those elements related to learner achievement for which targets may be set. This annexure also includes an example for high schools.
5. As the amendments to your SIP will not be extensive, but will nevertheless add value to your improvement efforts, you are kindly requested to complete this target-setting exercise immediately. Please submit your amended SIP before or on 20 March 2008 to the following official:

The IQMS co-ordinator in your district
6. We trust that this exercise will further improve the co-ordinated efforts of each school.


SIGNED: S. GALANT
HEAD: EDUCATION
DATE: 2008:03:05

Annexure A  (size: 37 KB)
Annexure B  (size: 65 KB)
Annexure B1  (size: 10 KB)