Education
With regard to school visits by district officials:
(1) Whether any schools have been visited by (a) curriculum advisors and/or (b) any other district officials between March and August 2020; if not, why not; if so, how many curriculum advisors and other officials physically visited schools;
(2) whether there is a (a) circular and/or (b) any formal communication that instructed curriculum advisors and/or any other district officials not to visit schools during the lockdown; if so, what are the relevant details;
(3) (a) how many physical visits to schools did she undertake between March and July 2020, (b) which schools were visited, (c) what are the reasons for this number of visits and (d) when was the last visit;
(4) (a) how much has her Department spent on the School Evaluation Authority, (b) what is the breakdown of that expenditure and (c) what work has been done by the School Evaluation Authority during this academic year?
(1) (a) Yes, Subject Advisors (previously called curriculum advisors) visited schools during this period;
(b) Yes, various district officials visited schools depending the need that schools registered.
Cumulatively, 10 856 visits in total were conducted for the period from 1 March 2020 to 31 August 2020.
- 3 296 visits have been conducted by Subject advisors.
- 7 560 visits have been conducted by other district officials – Circuit Managers, Specialised Learner Support Services (SLES – Psychologists, Social Workers and Learning Support advisors), School Finance and Records Officers, and Compliance Officers.
(2) No circular or formal communication was issued instructing staff not to visit schools.
(3) (a) 15
(b) The following schools were visited between 1 March 2020 and 31 July 2020:
- Nerina Primary
- Voorspoed Primary
- Groenvlei High
- Westlake Primary
- Hillwood Primary
- Intsebenziswano Secondary
- West End Primary
- Merrydale Primary (school was found not to be open)
- Portland Primary (school was found not to be open)
- Harvester Primary (school was found not to be open)
- Rosebank Junior
- Perivale Primary
- Zeekoevlei Secondary
- Pelican Park Primary
- Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital School
- Note: no visits were undertaken during the period from 20 March 2020 when schools closed, to 6 April 2020 when the emergency feeding programme began, as there were no learners or staff members at schools.
(c) Schools were visited for a variety of reasons, including:
- By request of the school;
- To assess implementation of the emergency feeding programme;
- To assess readiness for the re-opening of schools;
- To assess implementation of safety guidelines once schools had re-opened; and
- To receive feedback from schools on challenges they were facing as well as proactive actions and lessons that other schools could learn from.
(d) The last school in the period 1 March 2020 – 31 July 2020 was visited on 22 July 2020.
(4) A response from the Chief Evaluator of the Schools Evaluation Authority (an independent entity) is attached.
