Abstract:
Since the newly formed Department of Education came into being after the
democratic elections in the mid 1990’s, one area of concern continued to be
the process of educator appraisal (including that of office-based educators). In
the Free State, the performance of office-based educators was not appraised
until a new system, called the Performance Management and Development
Scheme (PMDS) for office-based educators, was introduced in 2005. Based on
the foregoing, a research study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness
of the PMDS in improving the performance of office-based educators.
In this study, the population consisted of office-based educators stationed in
the two education districts of Thabo Mofutsanyana and Fezile Dabi. The
sample consisted of office-based educators drawn from four sections, namely:
School Management and Governance Developers (SMGDs), Subject Advisors
(SAs), Learning Supprt Advisors (LSAs) and officials from School Youth
Recreation, Arts and Culture (SYRAC). Ten office-based-educators from each
section formed the sample of the study. Interviews were then conducted with
these forty (40) office-based educators.
The literature study explored the concepts of performance management and
performance development. The research findings of the empirical investigation
indicated that there are gaps between the literature scoured and the way
PMDS is being implemented. Based on the literature and empirical research
findings, recommendations were made for the Department of Basic Education
in the Free State regarding how PMDS should be implemented by supervisors in order to improve the performance of office-based educators. The researcher
also designed a model that may assist in the appraisal of office-based
educators.
