This was revealed in a recent study conducted by the Council for Development and Enterprise. The recent study titled ‘Teacher Professional Standards for South Africa: The Road to Better Performance, Development and Accountability?’ attributed the loss of learning time to the failure of the current model of teacher assessment – the Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS).
City Press reports the teacher-assessment model had been weakened to such a degree that teachers were getting performance points for attending staff meetings and not for targeting tangible gains to improve teaching and learning in schools.
“Teachers go shopping on paydays. They are doing extra jobs while they are full-time teachers,” an education expert told City Press.
The SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) in 2013 proposed that the Quality Management System (QMS) replace IQMS. “Until Sadtu has signed it off, it cannot be implemented. It has been watered down by government because of politics,” the expert said.
The Council for Development and Enterprise commissioned researchers from the Joint Education Trust to look at the development of teacher professional standards in developed and developing countries. The study assessed the potential of teacher professional standards to improve teacher quality in South Africa.
The study proposed that government review IQMS and introduce teacher professional standards that have been implemented in a number of countries.
“Teacher evaluation in South Africa should be both formative [aimed at personal growth of a teacher] and summative [undertaken as part of performance review focusing on teacher accountability],” it proposed.
It said the evaluation should “appraise teacher performance, strengthen accountability and support professional development”.
It questioned QMS, saying it arguably suffered from a fundamental design fault. It recommended that the department of basic education (DBE) and provinces hold teachers accountable by maintaining a strict school timetable to avoid frequent skipping of classes.
It should institute a high level of managerial accountability and require teachers to be in class when they should to reduce the loss of learning time.
Although such moves were likely to be met with union resistance in forums such as the Education Labour Relations Council, the report said government should move from rhetoric to action on this matter using the deadlock-breaking mechanism provided for by law.
