The framework sets out the evaluation requirements to be followed in the review of all government schools in the Kingdom of Bahrain. It lists the main aspects criteria that reviewers will evaluate prior to passing judgements on the aspects; which in turn will decide on the overall judgement of the school’s overall effectiveness and its capacity to improve.
The review framework evaluate the following:
• Quality of outcomes
- Academic achievement aspect
- Personal development and social responsibility aspect
• Quality of Main process
- Teaching, learning and assessment aspect
- Empowerment and meeting special needs aspect
• Quality assurance of outcomes and processes
- Leadership, management and governance aspect
Guidelines and forms
Appeals
Guidelines to schools
These instructions provide guidelines to schools concerning the appeal procedures that should be followed when appealing against the review judgement(s) as conducted by the Directorate of Government Schools Reviews (DGS) of the Education & Training Quality Authoriy (BQA). An appeal application should be submitted through a formal letter attached to the completed appeal form and supported by relevant evidence.
The school has the right to appeal according to the following procedures:
1. Stage-1 appeal:
a. An appeal against the review judgements is to be submitted as mentioned above to the Director of the relevant Directorate within five working days of the end of the review.
b. The school will be notified that their appeal has been received, and has been accepted or otherwise.
c. The school will receive a formal letter indicating the result of the appeal within 25 working days of BQA’s receipt of the Stage-1 appeal.
Appeal Form link:
2. Stage-2 appeal:
a. Normally, the school is eligible for a Stage-2 appeal if the institution is dissatisfied with the outcome of the Stage-1 appeal, and should not include any comments related to the provisional report.
b. The Stage-2 appeal should be submitted to the Chief Executive (CE) of the BQA within 5 working days of receiving the Stage-1 appeal outcomes.
c. A formal written receipt of the appeal will be acknowledged and sent to the school stating a definite date of the start of the appeal process.
d. The school will be informed of the outcome of the Stage-2 appeal normally within 30 working days of the date of the start of the appeal process.
3. In case the provisional review judgements that are submitted to the school at the end of the review are changed, the school has the right to submit a formal appeal, that would be considered as (Stage-2) appeal. However, this should be submitted in a period of 5 working days of receiving the provisional report that contains the change of judgement(s).
4. Under special circumstances, and subject to written approval from the BQA’s CE, a school might be allowed to submit a Stage-2 appeal in case of missing the period allowed for submitting a Stage-1 appeal.
Any appeals that do not follow the above procedures will not be considered.
Complaints
Guidelines to schools
These instructions provide guidelines to schools concerning the complaint procedures that should be followed regarding the code of conduct, communication, or the performance of the review team of the Directorate of Government Schools Review (DGS). In the event of the school wishing to appeal against the review judgements, however, this requires it to refer back to the appeal procedures. All complaints should be submitted as a formal letter attached to the completed complaint form and supported by relevant evidence following these steps:
1. The school may present a formal complaint to the Director of the directorate within five working days from the end of the review using the schools’ complaint form.
2. The DGS informs the school, within two working days, about receipt of the complaint.
3. The DGS will investigate facts related to the complaint, to reach a conclusion and a decision in accordance with the followed rules and regulations.
4. If a violation by the team or any of its members is found, the violation is further investigated and the appropriate action is taken against the violator by the administrative panel.
5. The Director sends a formal letter to the school within 20 working days explaining the decision taken by the committee in light of the investigation performed.
It is worth mentioning that the DGS review team members have the right to file a complaint against the school affiliates when there is a problem between one or more members of the review team and one or more of the school affiliates, and/or has caused by the school. The team leader or the quality assurance director will rapidly intervene to solve that problem. However, in case that situation calls for a complaint presented by the review team to the Ministry of Education or the concerned party at school regarding what has happened, certain steps will be followed to formally resolve the issue.
Self-evaluation
Guidelines to schools
The self-evaluation guidelines is intended to help you – as a school Principal - to get ready for the review by explaining how to fill in your self-evaluation form (SEF). However, the SEF is more than just a form to be completed in advance of the review. It should help you to organize the mass of information you have about your school, and to make judgements about its achievements. It will also help you to clearly identify your school’s strengths and areas for improvement, and plan for improvement.
The SEF should be regularly updated by the school, not just to be prepared for the review, in order to ensure that the school is constantly knowledgeable and effectively evaluates its situation. Completion of the SEF includes a range of management processes of monitoring and evaluation. Rigorous self-evaluation is an indicator of good management.
There is no special skill for self-evaluation; professionals always do it for improvement.
Teachers often ask themselves the following:
“Did that lesson go well?” or “How can I improve my use of ICT?”
Managers often ask themselves:
“Did I make the right decision?” or “How can I make better use of resources?”
Because people who work at schools care about their work, they constantly ask themselves how well they are doing, and how they can do better.
Likewise, the SEF invites you to ask the questions in the Review Framework, and to do so in a systematic way, giving detailed reasons for your answers.
The purpose of the review is to put forward recommendations, which will help you improve your school. The reviewer has no interest in being critical for the sake of criticism. Self-evaluation will help both you and the reviewers in being able to join, as equals, in open professional debate and discussion. It is important to point out that the self-evaluation is an important element in the review process.
Parents’ questionnaire (PQs)
The DGS is keen to include parents in the review process. Therefore, it relentlessly seeks parents’ views about their children’s schools and the services provided; through an automated process of screening; using an online parents’ opinion questionnaires that take into account confidentiality. The directorate continuously develop schemes to elicit parents’ views to maximize their involvement in schools performance evaluation. For Parents who show an interest in attending the parents’ meeting, a random selection will be chosen and will be invited to join the meeting that will be held at the school during the review.
