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09/10/2014

As a professional council for educators, ensuring the quality of teacher professional development is a major task for SACE.  By stimulating providers of teacher education programmes to submit their programmes for endorsement, SACE intends to improve the quality of programmes and provide educators with the information to select qualitative training opportunities.

Moreover, SACE is coordinating the implementation of the Continuous Teacher Professional Development (CPTD) system.  This implies that principals, heads of department (HODs) and teachers engage in lifelong professional development.   By engaging in self-initiated, school-initiated or externally-initiated programmes, they collect Professional Development Points, according to the duration and intensity of the programme. In 2014, HODs have been signing up for this system and principals have started their first 3-year cycle, during which they are expected to collect minimum 150 points.

On 7 and 8 October, VVOB and SACE organized a workshop for evaluators and members of the endorsement committee.  Evaluators analyse professional development programmes submitted by providers and advise the endorsement committee whether or not to endorse the programme.  The workshop focused on two major areas.

First, participants worked on a clearer description of criteria and levels of achievement for endorsement.  A draft rubric, as well as guidelines for evaluators and providers were discussed.  This rubric will be a central element in linking various guidelines together.  The aims are to increase the validity and reliability of the evaluation process, improve the quality of feedback to providers and, ultimately, to convince more providers to submit their programmes to SACE.

Secondly, the role of site visits was unpacked.  Although site visits are not a condition for endorsement, they are an important element in the monitoring of the quality of programmes.  The focus of the site visits will lie on verifying the information submitted by providers for endorsement, as well as collecting information on additional aspects, such as the quality of the facilitator and the facility.  Tools for site visits were discussed, as well as more practical issues, such as frequency, duration, responsibilities and timing.  Site visits will start later this month.

Based on feedback collected during the workshop, SACE will finalize the documents discussed and submit them for approval by the Programme Committee.