Principal, teacher win big at Service Excellence Awards
2 June 2023
Clive Arries, Principal of West End Primary School in Mitchell’s Plain, and Phumla Yabo, a teacher at Nduli Primary School in Ceres, were amongst the winners of this year’s Service Excellence Awards (SEA).
The SEA is held annually within the Western Cape Government to promote a citizen centric culture, entrench professionalism, as well as recognise and reward excellence.
Arries was awarded gold in the category Best Public Service Innovator Employee. He has served on the Provincial Principal’s Forum since 2019. The judges said that by nature, Arries was acknowledged for his leadership in education and community building programmes.
Yabo won a silver award in the category Best Frontline Service Delivery Employee. The adjudicators found that she demonstrates exceptional productivity, efficiency, effectiveness, and competency. They added that she never hesitates to go the extra mile and has been praised for her brilliant and supportive role as a teacher.
Officials at the Western Cape Education Department’s Head Office also received recognition at the award ceremony on 12 May 2023 at the Century City Conference Centre.
Noleen Dodgen, Provincial Manager of the Growth Mindset Pillar that forms part of the Department’s Transform to Perform Strategy, received a silver award in the category Best Public Service Innovator Employee. Dodgen was commended for collaborating with colleagues at the Centre for e-Innovation to produce ePosters, ensuring unfettered engagement in the Growth Mindset facilitation.
“This is an ingenious “hook” into learners’ existing pre-occupation with technology and social media. Meme-like in appearance, its simplicity belies the extent of its potential for engagement with users and the vastness of the scope it covers.”
Haroon Mahomed, Deputy Director-General: Curriculum and Assessment Management, was part of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sports’ YearBeyond team that won a bronze award. YearBeyond is a transversal, whole-of-society project that provides young people with work experience, personal and professional skills and support to pathway into studies or work. It reduces unemployment by supporting young people to enter jobs or studies. The WCED assisted the programme with learner materials and some management funding.
The team behind the WCED’s ePortal received a finalist certificate in the category Best Public Service Innovation Team/Project. The ePortal is an education-centric, large-scale distribution platform that provides teachers, learners and parents with online tools and resources to offer learners opportunities to improve their educational results and throughput. WCED curriculum planners responded to school closure and disruption by developing more than 24 000 educational resources in all three official provincial languages, at no cost to the end-user, and in alignment with the South African curriculum (CAPS).
More than 31 000 educational resources are hosted on the WCED ePortal, readily available to everybody with internet connectivity.
