Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) at the Western Cape Education Department (WCED): Investigating staff readiness

Abstract

The absence of coordinated Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) in the South African public administration from 1994 to 2005 highlighted the gap in standardised national evaluation system where the National Evaluation Policy Framework (NEPF) acknowledged that there was an unexploited possibility to utilise evaluations to enhance the public sectors usefulness, competence, influence, and sustainability. Within the Western Cape Government (WCG), systems for M&E to strengthen performance reporting exist, but the implementation of these existing systems is piecemeal with fragmented approaches to monitoring and evaluation across the various departments. This study investigated staff readiness for Monitoring & Evaluation at the Western Cape Education Department (WCED). To achieve this goal, it employed a quantitative research method with a cross-sectional sample.