THE NEW INSPECTORS

As schools changed the way they carried out planning and taught the new National Curriculum, the inspection system needed to change too. There needed to be realignment between what teachers were doing and what was being inspected.

The project developed and implemented a new inspection system focusing on childrens’ achievements and assessing the extent to which teaching, learning and school management were contributing factors.

In addition to the new inspection framework, the projects piloted an education management information system (EMIS), and the heads of county education bureaus were trained in education planning in order to improve the capacity of county education officials.

Support was provided to develop an Inspection Framework and an Inspection Guidance Manual. New inspectors were selected from project and non-project counties across the province, including some head teachers who benefited from learning about other schools and were also able to share their own experiences.

Key officials in four county education bureaus were trained and produced a three-year rolling County Education Plan.

A set of planning guidelines was produced and county education staff were helped to become more aware of their role as coordinators and ‘champions of change’.

The EMIS introduced by the projects focused on gathering data at student rather than school level. This has allowed for a much richer data set, including the ability to track pupils as they change school or drop-out.

Gao Fangxia, Inspector and Deputy Head Teacher, No. Six Middle School, Wuwei City

During the inspection process we observed almost every teacher’s lesson: 100% of primary school teachers and 70% in secondary schools. We provided feedback after the observation, which teachers appreciated and found encouraging. For example, we observed one teacher several times and I could see the improvement lesson by lesson. No inspection, no improvement. Head teachers would like to be improved by inspection so they welcome it. I learnt a lot during the process.

Gao Fangxia is one of 1,600 inspectors who were trained by GBEP and SUBEP. She received seven days’ team inspector training, increased from the four days provided under GBEP. Over 10 years, more than 1,200 schools have been inspected using the new model.