The South African Council for Educators (SACE) is currently rolling out its Continuing Professional Teacher Development Management System. All teachers must sign up and collect 150 professional development points in a cycle of 3 years. The implementation of the SACE CPTD Management System expects all providers of professional development, such as Provincial Departments of Education, to submit its teacher development training programmes to SACE for endorsement. This will enhance quality assurance and will allow easy accumulation of PD points by teachers.
To this date SACE reports limited endorsed programmes from the Free State Department of Education.
To turn around this situation, SACE builds capacity with officials on the SACE endorsement process. On Monday 26 October officials from Free State district and provincial offices attended a training session, facilitated by Theo Toolo from SACE and supported by VVOB.
Participants got acquainted with the process of submission of programmes to SACE and the criteria used by SACE evaluators (evaluation rubric).
During the last activity, participants reflected on how the information could be applied to their current training programmes:
- Which programmes qualify for SACE submission with little extra efforts?
- Which programmes need serious attention in order to qualify for submission and endorsement?
- What steps will they take and who will do what?
Participants are expected to discuss the outcomes with their supervisors and jointly make strategic decisions on reviewing their current programmes and preparing them for submission to SACE for endorsement.
