There are participants who point out that the completion of paperwork is a complex exercise which is not easy to
understand. For GGB, the challenge for members of staff was “the difficulty to complete the PMS forms given to
them”. GGA refers to the complexity of paperwork as “mind boggling and too academic for the average
employee.” TTC describes the paperwork as “difficult to understand and complete as well as tedious” and that
they spend much of their time advising teachers on how to complete forms which they, as managers, hardly
understand.
There is a perception that the amount of time spent by school managers and teachers working on the PMS
documents has a negative effect on school management and on teaching and learning. From EEB’s recollection
of the PMS, right from the time when it was first introduced, paperwork took away school managers from their
role of managing schools. Furthermore, he explains: “The amount of paperwork involved kept teachers away
from the classroom.” FFC is also concerned about the amount of time school personnel are spending on
paperwork and the effect on the core business. She explains: “PMS is more about paperwork and this keeps
school management and teachers away from their core business for long hours. So I can’t say it is helping
schools to improve performance, but it is contributing to poor performance.”