The push for education evaluation ushered in by the Minister’s National Education
Evaluation and Development Unit Report of 2009 is a necessary development. This is
so in spite of the doubts cast by critics, the minimal success of some earlier evaluation
programmes (such as Whole School Evaluation (WSE) and the Integrated Quality
Management System (IQMS) and the complexity of the task itself. A vehicle to evaluate
the national education system is a key component of the broader strategy to improve
education in this country. This paper therefore takes the opportunity to examine the
overall national evaluation framework against the needs of the schools, the education
system as whole and the aspirations of the society and poses questions about the
potential that the evaluation framework offers for addressing the challenges we are
facing. In order to answer the questions, the paper examines what these challenges
are and how the national evaluation programme can be focused to overcome them.
It is, however, clear that while it is an important cog in the quality improvement
machine, the inspection system the public has cried out for will not be a panacea or
a quick fix for the problems of today’s education system. Designing the evaluation
vehicle is itself going to be a challenge. The purpose, objectives, coverage and
methodologies of the evaluation system have to be carefully selected, as much as
the processes of introducing and governing this function have to be responsibly
undertaken. Some of these issues are described in the National Education Evaluation
and Development Unit (NEEDU) report. This paper takes the NEEDU report as the
starting point, draws lessons from other countries and JET’s own research and
development work and explores the education evaluation framework in South Africa
with a view to outlining its key success factors and weaknesses. The exploration
of the South African evaluation framework specifically focuses on the fundamental
purposes, underlying theories and benefits of the various evaluation provisions, as
well as the practicalities of its implementation.