During the Director-General’s recent provincial engagements on improving reading literacy outcomes, the DBE indicated that further capacity building workshops were needed for officials and classroom practitioners. From 18 until 21 September 2023, the Centre for Evaluation and Assessment (CEA) and the University of Pretoria (UP), in collaboration with the DBE, hosted the first of these workshops to assist officials in interpreting and utilising large-scale assessment data to improve their support to schools on reading literacy.

Education officials from the DBE and various provinces at different levels of the system, were empowered with skills on utilising, analysing and presenting assessment data to diverse audiences, using performance levels that focus on improving learning. It is envisaged that these skills will also enable them to use assessment data to improve their decision-making processes regarding policy and practice for improving learning and teaching for all learners in South Africa, especially learners from poor and marginalised backgrounds.

Speaking on the value of the workshop, Dr Mark Chetty, Director for National Assessments, said that the workshop was part of the Department’s ongoing support to national, provincial and district officials on assessment literacy. The workshop programme was designed to provide onsite assessment training to officials by a leading group of local and international experts that included Professor Anil Kanjee (TUT), Dr Meshack Qetelo Moloi (UJ) and Professor Jo-Anne Baird (Oxford University). Participants were exposed to global perspectives on areas relating to large-scale assessment and school based assessment by facilitators from the United States, Spain, Uganda and Norway. The workshop was supported by sector representatives from Labour, the IEB and the NECT.  Similar workshops will be scheduled during 2024 to further expose officials to strategic shifts in the assessment