Post Provisioning Norms

Post Provisioning Norms(PPN)

Portfolio Committee Meeting

24 February 2015

PURPOSE

To inform the Portfolio Committee of the state of provincial post provisioning processes.

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BACKGROUND

The 1998 Post Provisioning Norms (Government Notice 1676 of 1998), which became fully implemented in 2000, represented the country’s first attempt at applying an equitable policy to the distribution of publicly funded educator posts across public schools. Revisions to the norms introduced in 2002 (Government Notice 1 451 of 2002) ensured that a portion of school posts, up to 5% of all such posts, would be distributed in a manner that was favourable to schools serving poorer communities. The implementation of the new FET curriculum (in 2006) required the model to be adjusted in order to make provision for the new learning areas and time requirements. In 2008, CEM approved changes to two areas of the 2002 policy. The changes led to a document titled ‘Post distribution model for the allocation of educator posts to schools’ which essentially replaced the entire 2002 document (PPN-revised).

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POLICY IMPLEMENTATION VARIATIONS

During 2013, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) commissioned research to review progress with the implementation of Post Provisioning Norms and assessing the impact of teacher provisioning, planning, utilisation and deployment through funding from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).The service provider (Deloitte), conducted workshops in all nine provinces with key officials involved in the post provisioning process. The research work commenced in February 2013 and was concluded in September 2013.One of the main findings of the report was the different ways in which the Post Provisioning Norms (PPN) and processes are implemented in Provincial Education Departments (PEDs).Variances were noted in policy interpretation and implementation.

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DBE MONITORING

In July 2014, DBE officials undertook a visit to all provinces as a follow-up from the Deloitte’s report. The following practices were noted:Allocating additional posts to schools with learner growth (outside model);Running separate models for Ordinary and Special schools;Allocating additional posts to schools with curriculum changes;Setting minimum number of posts for small schools in model;Withholding any posts for targeted distribution outside model;Maintaining/increasing the number of educators without considering budget allocation;Targeting the maintenance/lowering of Learner: Educator Ratio;Non-redeployment of Excess educators without funding; andNot budgeting for ad hoc posts.

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DATA

Across the nine provinces, three different methods of data collection were observed: Paper based; SASAMS; and Online learner tracking. It was noted that all schools are required to be on SASAMS by 2015. This will greatly assist in negating data issues and issues emanating from the misalignment between EMIS deadlines and HR deadlines. The availability of current data will also go a long way to assisting provinces with the provisioning of ad hoc posts. KZN, EC, NC, LP and MP had noted the non-availability of clean data as an obstacle to the issuing of establishments.

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BUDGET PRESSURES

The targeting of a specific Learner-Educator Ratio to maintain the current warm bodies is another pressure or common way in which provinces are exceeding the affordable post basket.Another common practice which opposes the distributive intent of the policy is the minimum allocation to schools e.g. no school should be a one person school.It is also noted that some provinces are more lenient when it goes to the redeployment of excess educators from small/rural schools.

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IDENTIFIED RISKS

Allocating additional posts to schools with learner growth (outside model);Deviation from these norms would result in provinces distributing an unaffordable basket;Targeting the maintenance/lowering of Learner: Educator Ratio;Non-redeployment of Excess educators without funding;Not budgeting for ad hoc posts; andThe issue of inaccurate data or typing errors is also one of the main necessitating factor for ad hoc allocations.

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CURRENT STATUS

All PEDs have declared their establishments for 2015 with the exception of Limpopo Province.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

The starting point for Post Provisioning should be to determine the number of posts the province can afford in accordance with the budget norms of 80:20 and 85:15;Training needs to be provided to both technical and management levels;PEDs to submit any deviations from the policy to DBE for approval;All provinces must adhere to the timeframes as recommended by the DBE for the PPN process;All provinces should have a functional Post Provisioning Team comprising of HR, EMIS and Finance;Migration to SASAMS should be fast-tracked and utilization of SASAMS data as the primary source of data for PPN is recommended; and All provinces must maintain Provincial Quintiles for the purposes of poverty redress in post provisioning.

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THANK YOU!