In August 2020 the Schools Evaluation Authority (SEA) assessed Paarl Boys’ High on five key functions. The results of the evaluation were recently released, and headmaster Derek Swart said he was happy his school had received an outstanding overall performance rating.
The SEA is an independent body established at the end of 2019 by the Western Cape Provincial legislature in accordance with the provisions of the Western Cape Education Amendment Bill. The aim of the SEA is to improve schools and the quality of learning and teaching.
“Established in October 2019 with the appointment of the Chief Evaluator, the SEA conducts independent, reliable evaluations on the quality of schools to strengthen accountability and improve school and learner outcomes,” according to Karen Bydell, the SEA’s Chief Evaluator.
“The first full evaluations were conducted from February to March 2020 before our country entered a national lockdown. The SEA responded to the Covid-19 pandemic by adapting its evaluation methodology in July 2020 to focus specifically on schools’ responses to Covid-19. After positive indications that schools were becoming fully functional despite Covid-19, evaluations were conducted from August 2021 using the initial methodology.”
The five areas of evaluation include learner achievement, quality teaching and learning, behaviour and safety, leadership and management, governance, parents and community.
Each category was rated out of four points. These points are then summarised into an overall rating. Paarl Boys’ High received full points – four out of four.
“This is not an attempt to brag at all,” Swart said.
“This is just an attempt to pay homage to everyone who put in the effort to keep the school running during the hard lockdown. Our motto was ‘as normal as possible as soon as possible’.”
The school staff and learners, as at many other schools, have put in a lot of effort so education could take place as normally as possible, given the challenges everyone faced. Swart expressed satisfaction with the feedback received from the SEA.
“I feel very proud. I think these are a lot of critical people [the evaluators], but I think they are very canny. I am happy with the feedback, given the fact that a lot of effort had been put into it.
“Education is a unappreciated job. There are very few places where one really only gets a nod of appreciation for all the work.”
Bydell added: “Many more schools will be evaluated over the coming years. The objective is to evaluate all schools in the Western Cape and then re-evaluate them with regularity.”
- SEA school reports are accessible on the website https://sea.westerncape.gov.za/
