Most principals have been orientated and signed up in the CPTD management system. They are now finalising their first 3-year cycle to accumulate professional development points. However, little was known about how actively educators make use of the system and how it stimulates their professional development. The study focused on principals and other school-based educators in 4 provinces: in Free State, Kwa Zulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Western Cape. In South Africa, every school-based educator needs to sign-up into the SACE Continuous Professional Teacher Development (CPTD) system. In this system, educators can collect professional development points by engaging in professional development activities and registering these in their professional development portfolios. To come to recommendations to improve user-friendliness of the system, VVOB supported SACE with a study to monitor and evaluate the accessibility and quality of educators’ professional development portfolios with a focus on rural areas.
The in-depth study is based on perceptual data from educators within a sample 
of 10 schools per province (in Mpumalanga and Western Cape the study only focused on statistics in the CPTD system). Results indicate that most principals are signed up in the system, however few are reporting their participation in professional development activities in their professional development portfolio. It was observed that it is crucial for principals to see the value of professional development and the portfolio, for teachers to have the same sentiment. The whole process of reporting on professional development can be seen as an additional administrative burden, however it encourages educators to reflect and keep track of what activities they are participating in and what they could do to improve as an educator.
“Not easy to record because of heavy workload. Have to do office work, teach and attend meetings and forget to record these activities. Takes time but try to keep it on file.”
“CPTD activities encourage you and bring back that willingness to do your duty thus refreshing your role in a work place.”
The findings of the study inform SACE which aspects of the system need improvements to strengthen the role and process of the whole CPTD system. One of the recommendations is to focus more on the advocacy of the system, because teachers will start their 3-year cycle next year. These advocacy sessions should be extended with monitoring and support visits in all provinces to motivate educators on using the system.
A full version of the report is available upon request.
