c) School Management and Professional Development for Teacher

In 2009 there were not much difference in performance between partner schools and comparison schools on the indicators related to school leadership and MGMP. Considerable progress in the partner schools was observed on each indicator during the 2010 monitoring, as can be seen in chart 3. The greatest increase in the indicator related to school leadership was in the proportion of principals' monitoring teaching and learning.

The management and use of school libraries indicator showed an increase with 84.7% of partner schools having libraries which were well organized and used compared to 61.8% in the previous year. However, most libraries still suffer from a shortage of suitable books.

The number of effective MGMPs increased to 28.7% in 2010. In 2009, it was only 15.9%. The most common problem is the low frequency of MGMP meetings, which often take place less than once per month. Access to meetings is also a problem since most MGMPs cover a large area (normally the whole district) and a large number of schools. Teachers' professional development needs appear to be better catered for by school level MGMP activities rather than at district level MGMPs.

d) Life Skills Monitoring in the Core Districts

DBE3 conducted monitoring in the 80 partner schools in core districts to measure progress on indicators related to students' life and work skills. DBE3 assessed whether students in partner schools showed evidence of certain social, vocational and personal life skills. The data collected showed a high percentage, 98% of students in five provinces, demonstrated these skills.

This amounted to an increase of 3.6% compared to last year's monitoring results. An increase was observed in almost all provinces. The data also shows that test results for the girls were higher that for boys and that test results for SMP students were slightly better than the results of MTs students.