The re-structuring and re-conceptualization of the South African Education System after 1994, necessitated a transformation of the evaluation process. The emphasis was now on enhanced performance at school level. This is clearly stipulated and documented in the South African Schools Act 84 of 1996. Thus, it was with such policy initiatives that the Developmental Appraisal System of South Africa (DAS), was designed, developed and implemented at school level. The rationale focussed on improving the quality of teaching and learning and organizational growth and development. This research explores how the Developmental Appraisal System has moved from being entrenched with inflexible characteristics to a more educator-friendly approach of evaluation. The appraisee is the principle role player in the whole process. The purpose of this research is to undertake a case study to evaluate the implementation of the Developmental Appraisal System (DAS) at a single secondary school in the North Durban Region. The main finding was that due to multi-faceted reasons, this school has not been able to complete the implementation of the DAS. A small percentage of educators have been appraised. However, this is not sufficient to improve organizational growth and ensure that teacher development is taking place. The research makes recommendations based on the findings which if implemented could change the educator's perception of DAS. The emphasis is on developmental rather than criticism. In this way the culture of teaching and learning can improve. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

The broad theme of this investigation is Human Resource Management (HRM) in education. It has been widely publicised both in the media and other areas that the salary bill for state paid educators represents the major area of expenditure. More than ninety percent of the education budget in the KwaZulu Natal Department of Education and Culture is spent on the salary bill. It therefore becomes necessary to ensure that newly appointed educators and those appointed into promotion posts who are earning these salaries do justice in their jobs and produce the goods. School management teams have to ensure that these newcomers settle into their new jobs as quickly and effectively as possible. A newcomer into the teaching profession will have to cope with increasingly complex situations such as heterogeneous pupil population, teacher rationalisation, new curricula, teacher redeployment and increased pupil/teacher ratios. It is therefore important that educators, who are the most expensive asset in the school, are managed effectively. The first few days on the plant is considered to be important in any profession, as this will determine whether the employee will continue to provide his/her service or resign. With education as well, the induction of educators has to be managed by the school as quickly as possible to enable and to empower the inductee in becoming an effective educator. While some aspects of induction and mentoring are instituted in an informal way at the school under investigation, many other areas are sorely neglected. The p management of people in South African schools is circumscribed through legislation J* and regulation. The professional development of educators therefore rests with management and must be in line with legislation prescribed in government gazettes. However not much attention is being given to induction and mentoring programmes which focus on utilising and empowering the human capital (staff members) at the school. The challenge for school level management is to come to terms with what it means to manage the performance and productivity of people in ways, which meets the aspirations of the people and the needs of the organisation. This project has attempted to investigate the management of induction and mentoring at a school in Phoenix, north of Durban. It has been found that no formal programmes p on induction and mentoring exist at the school. It is therefore recommended that management together with, and in consultation with staff members, draw up and implement a policy on induction and mentoring. This will ensure that with guidance and training (induction and mentoring), new human resources will be best utilised to suit the needs of the school. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.