Evaluating the Significance of Strategic Management on the Monitoring and Evaluation of Secondary Schools in Gauteng Province, South Africa

The management of monitoring and evaluation systems for secondary schools is one of fundamentally important educational development and improvement initiatives in South Africa. Nevertheless, the efficiency of monitoring and evaluation has been under scrutiny considering the deteriorating standards of secondary education. This brought the question on how the systems are managed hence provoking the significance of strategic management on monitoring and evaluation of secondary schools while drawing inferences in the Gauteng Schools Governing Bodies. The study is a qualitative study where data was collected using interviews from a sample of 10 participants. The sample was obtained using a non-probability sampling executed using a purposive sampling technique. The elicited views and opinions were thematically analysed where arguments were arranged in codes generated from patterns of meaning and recurrence. The study however noted that monitoring and evaluation of secondary education is challenged by lack of communication and coordination, poor reporting systems and insufficiency of usable data. Furthermore, the strategic management has been established as very crucial in monitoring and evaluation considering how it reduces uncertainty and limits resistance to change in monitoring and evaluation and identifies strategic advantages of the organisation. In the same vein, considering the significance of strategic management there are various interventions that can be adopted to improve monitoring and evaluation of secondary schools. The organisations must adopt a human-centered design approach, improve collection and analysis of monitoring and evaluation data and embracing strategic management underpinnings such as intensive planning and coordination.