PSA is currently involved in the delivery of the Management & Leadership component of the Anglo America South Africa (AASA) Education Programme for 110 Primary & Secondary Schools located in the areas in which it is operating in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape.

One of the first steps was to use our newly developed on-line management practices assessment tool to work with the SMTs to establish a Management Practices baseline score for each school in the 7 core areas, viz: School Governance, Curriculum Management, Teacher Development, Learner Welfare, Parents and Resources.

On completion of the assessment an overall Management Practices Score is produced, as well as a score for each of the 7 themed areas.  The PSA Management & Leadership Programme consists of 8 action and outcomes based modules for Principals & DPs, and 4 for HODs which will be trained and coached over the next 3 years. Re-assessments will be conducted at 12-month intervals during the programme which will provide a means in which to measure progress made. In addition, the gaps identified through this assessment will be fed into each school’s improvement plan.  Another positive, is that PSA was able to provide the department and funders with the current Management & Leadership practice status for individual schools, school groups and overall.

After the first re-assessment, scheduled for November 2019, each SMT will be provided with the link to their school so that they are able to conduct self-assessments at agreed intervals and to start owning and driving the improvement process themselves.

Where schools are in areas without internet connectivity the assessment is conducted off-line and then uploaded once in an area where internet connection is available. Initial communication regarding the assessment process and supporting evidence required was communicated and discussed with the SMTs of the 110 schools during their Induction sessions. A checklist of supporting evidence required was provided at the Induction. As with all systems, we have minor improvements to make. This first application of the tool on scale, since it was first piloted in 2018, has assisted PSA in making further improvements in the training provided to the PSA assessors, and how best to deal with situations where there is no internet connectivity.

As an organisation we are excited to see how this tool will assist us to measure the progress being made by the participating schools in terms of Management & Leadership practices.