1. The Directorate: Quality Assurance is responsible for co-ordinating all the quality management systems in the WCED. The Directorate has to ensure that these systems are in place and that all systems are effectively and efficiently implemented.
2. This Quality Assurance Minute 0007/2008 serves to remind all educators and district officials of deliverables as per the IQMS Calendar for Educators for 2008.
3. PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT
3.1 All educators are reminded that, according to the IQMS Calendar for Educators for 2008, the summative evaluation commences in August 2008 and should be completed by 31 October 2008.
3.2 Principals and SDTs are reminded that all moderation and administrative activities at school level concerning the summative scores of individual educators should be completed before 14 November 2008.
3.3 The principal and CEO of each institution under the jurisdiction of the WCED are responsible for ensuring that the summative scores of all WCED-remunerated educators, therapists and psychologists at the institution are submitted.
3.4 The status quo for principals and deputy principals remains unchanged for the 2008 evaluation cycle and scores must be submitted for these educators. Refer to Quality Assurance Minute 0006/2008.
3.5 The principal is responsible for the moderation of the summative scores of the educators at school level.
3.6 Principals are reminded that the moderation process in the context of the IQMS is the process of verifying the validity of scores allocated against the performance standards and the processes and procedures as prescribed in ELRC Collective Agreement 8 of 2003, 4 and 5 of 2005. The objective of these steps should be to ensure that processes and procedures, as contained in the Collective Agreements, are fully complied with.
3.7 The IMG adviser is responsible for moderating the scores of a sample of educators at schools across the circuit. The circuit team manager is responsible for moderating the scores of all principals across the circuit.
3.8 Principals are requested to co-operate with the IQMS Co-ordinators at the respective district offices, as they will arrange with all schools within the district to collect the required documents of the summative evaluation in 2008. The Directorate: Quality Assurance will communicate directly with the FET colleges in this regard.
3.9 The national Department of Education (DoE) monitors the implementation of the IQMS in accordance with the Collective Agreements. In order to effectively monitor and ensure that the prescripts are fully complied with during the implementation of the IQMS, the DoE has appointed external moderators in all the provinces.
3.10 You will find, attached, a letter from the DoE to clarify the roles and responsibilities of the external moderators.
3.11 The external moderation team in the province consists of one project manager who will manage the activities of the four external moderators who will perform on-site visits at various schools in the province.
3.12 The project manager will inform schools in advance of an on-site visit and will supply schools with a list of required documents that the school must present.
3.13 The external moderators are required to do quality checks on all the processes and procedures, as contained in the ELRC Collective Agreement 8 of 2003. Principals of all schools and district officials are expected to co-operate with the moderators and must supply them with the relevant documents for scrutiny, on request.
4. SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLANS
4.1 All schools are required to develop a relevant School Improvement Plan (SIP) for 2009 in relation to the 9 Focus Areas. All schools, therefore, have to perform a comprehensive School Self-Evaluation (SSE) as an integral part of the process to gather data and realistic information in order to write a SIP.
4.2 The IQMS co-ordinator will supply all schools in their respective districts with a template on which to complete the SIP. All schools must use the same prescribed template.
4.3 All primary schools have to submit a SIP by 28 November 2008 and the submission date for high schools is 30 January 2009.
4.4 The SIP is a statement of intent by the school. The Circuit Team must support the school to attain the set goals and targets in the SIP. All stakeholders, therefore, have to agree on the development programmes in the SIP.


SIGNED: L.J. ROSE
HEAD: EDUCATION
DATE: 2008:08:07

Letter from DoE  (size: 74 KB)