Zimbabwe adopted Results Based Management (RBM) in order to evaluate the performance of its workers. For the process to be ‘significant’ and meet the basic attribute of utility, evaluation information should be focused towards predetermined uses. The objective of this study was to assess the significance of the teacher performance evaluation process and examine the relationship between the significance and the effectiveness of the evaluation system of Kwekwe district in Zimbabwe. The study was situated in the pragmatic worldview and underpinned by the Readiness Assessment, Design, Process, Significance (RADPS) conceptual framework. It adopted the convergent mixed method design and the concurrent sampling design. Simple random and purposive sampling techniques were used to select 292 teachers and 12 educators for the quantitative and qualitative research strands respectively. SPSS version 26 was used to analyse the quantitative data and qualitative data were analysed using Atlas ti. 8. Findings show that the evaluation process in the Kwekwe district has no meaningful consequences or implications on effectiveness of the evaluation system. RBM has failed to fulfil both the professional and accountability functions. The inferential statistics proved that the significance of an evaluation process is statistically significant in predicting and influencing the effectiveness of an evaluation system and in the case of Kwekwe district, the evaluation process negatively impacted on the effectiveness of evaluation of teachers. The study findings imply that an evaluation process should be carefully planned and implemented for professional and accountability functions of teachers to be effective.

This paper reports on a study that assessed how timing of introducing teacher performance evaluation in one district in Zimbabwe influenced the achievement of the desired outcomes.  The research was premised on the pragmatic research paradigm and underpinned by the Readiness Assessment, Design, Process, Significance (RADPS) conceptual framework. The convergent parallel mixed method design was employed for data gathering and analysis from randomly selected 292 teachers for the quantitative strand and 12 purposively selected teachers for the qualitative strand. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics (Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Beta coefficient tests) were used to analyse quantitative data and ATLAS ti. 8 generated quotations and networks that summarised the narrative views of teachers on the timing of introducing the performance evaluation system. The ANOVA result (0.000) indicated that there was a significant relationship between the timing of introducing performance evaluation and its effectiveness and the Beta coefficient value (0.213) indicated a strong influence of timing of introduction on effectiveness of performance evaluation.  The quantitative results were corroborated by findings from interviews, which indicated that the system had been imposed, had inadequate budgetary support, no piloting prior to implementation, inadequate pre-implementation training and marketing. These resultantly led to limited buy-in by stakeholders and a negative impact on the effectiveness of the whole performance evaluation system.  Based on the findings, we concluded that due to its mistimed introduction, the performance evaluation system was ineffective in achieving its educational objectives in the Zimbabwean district where the study was conducted.

The design of a performance evaluation system should ideally be inclusive and participatory to enhance stakeholders’ buy-in, acceptance and ownership of the system, whilst at the same time, ensure relevance and sustainability of the process.  This paper examines the design process of the teacher evaluation system in one education district of Zimbabwe. The study intended to establish the extent of teacher involvement in the design of the evaluation system and to determine the relationship between the design process and effectiveness of the evaluation system. The study used the convergent mixed method design. A quantitative sample of 292 teachers and a qualitative sample of 12 educators, namely teachers, heads of departments and school heads drawn from 10 secondary schools participated in the study. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS version 26 and descriptive and inferential statistics were conducted. Atlas ti. 8 was used to analyse the qualitative data. The study established that the design process was exclusive and non-participatory, which led to lack of ownership and buy-in by the teachers. Based on these findings, it was concluded that the design process was faulty and negatively impacted the effectiveness of the teacher performance evaluation system. The study recommends that policy formulation should be inclusive and pilot tested to allow input of the users before full scale implementation.   Received: 14 October 2020 / Accepted: 29 March 2021 / Published: 10 May 2021

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