Measuring and monitoring performance of employees is an integral part of management. The need for an effective appraisal system to manage and monitor the performance of employees is self-evident in this country. The appraisal system for office-based educators is informed by the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) Collective Agreement No. 3 of 2002, which was signed on 11 December 2002. This appraisal system was developed with good intensions of enhancing the performance of office-based educators, and the prime aim being to manage and improve service delivery at all levels in the system. The objective of the study is to investigate the perceptions of the office-based educators on the implementation of the appraisal system. Do office-based educators perceive it that way? As implementers and direct beneficiaries, are the good intensions of the policy yielded when its implementation is faced with realities and practicalities of the implementation of the policy? The vehicle I used to achieve the goal of the study was quantitative approach. Self administered questionnaires were completed by respondents. The questionnaire consisted of one open-ended question which gave the respondents sufficient room to voice their opinions without restrictions and the close-ended questions. The sample was the whole population of the office-based educators in the Dr Ruth S. Mompati district office, department of education, North West province. The total number is only 103 and it was manageable. The analysis of data is illustrated in the form of tables, graphs and brief discussions. A written undertaking to guarantee confidentiality to respondents was given and all respondents signed the undertaking to indicate their voluntary participation. The study is significant in that the findings and recommendations might inform policy custodians on the status and improvement of the quality of the implementation of the appraisal system. Copyright / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted