News

Training school principals for better matric results

10 May 2010

The Department of Education (KwaZulu Natal) is pleased to announce the roll out of the Principals Management Development Programme (PMDP), a unique intervention to build capacity in education districts.

The programme aims at the rapid upgrading and transfer of management skills in areas including curriculum management, planning, finance, resource and people management.  This programme is part of the Education Roadmap and 10 point plan on education of which one of the points aims to “œStrengthen management capacity to ensure working districts and schools”.

The PMDP was piloted at 50 schools in KwaZulu-Natal in the latter part of 2009.  Implementation was jointly carried out by the local Department of Education (DoE) and a service provider consortium consisting of the University of KZN, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Performance Solutions Africa, who acted as project managers.  Funding for the pilot programme was shared by the DoE, the J & J Development Projects Trust and the Development Bank of South Africa.

The pilot results revealed that secondary schools participating in the programme improved their Grade 12 2009 results by 12,3% over 2008. With the exclusion of the lowest two performers, the improvement in secondary schools in 2009 was recorded at 17%.

The department is committed to roll out the PMDP to 1,710 schools within the province over the next three years.  All ward managers within the province would be included in the programme, thereby ensuring working districts in education. The department has committed R9 million in the 2010/2011 financial year to this end.

Through a further contribution from the J&J Development Projects Trust, which sourced a generous donation from the Anglo American Chairman’s Fund, a private sector partner has been secured for the 2010 PMDP, thereby demonstrating the commitment of business to work on improving education, and systems within public education.