M&E Executive Manager, Eleanor Hazell's 11-year journey at JET

In this staff profiling article, we interviewed Eleanor Hazell; Executive Manager: Monitoring and Evaluation

Eleanor Hazell has been with JET Education Services for 11 years. She served as the Acting Executive Manager of the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) division for two years before being promoted to the official Executive Manager role. In her current capacity, Eleanor holds various responsibilities including leading the M&E team and M&E projects, quality-assuring the M&E work carried out by the team, contributing to business development and senior management responsibilities.

Eleanor, originally from the United Kingdom, began her journey in South Africa in 2005 when she pursued a Master’s degree in Development Studies at the University of KwaZulu Natal. During that time, she was first exposed to monitoring and evaluation. Her first M&E role was as a research/evaluator at MiET Africa based in Durban. She provided M&E support to projects such as the School as a Centre of Care and Support (SCCS) in South Africa and the Care and Support for Teaching and Learning (CSTL) in the Southern African Development Community region. It was during this time that she learned about JET.

Following her stint at MiET Africa, Eleanor worked as a research consultant for a firm based in Cape Town and also engaged in freelance work before ultimately joining JET. When Eleanor joined JET, the M&E unit was established, comprising Eleanor along with Benita Reddi-Williams. Shortly after the M&E division was established and Thandi Lewin joined as the M&E Executive Manager. When Thandi left JET to join the Department of Higher Education and Training, Eleanor succeeded her as the M&E Executive Manager. Under Eleanor's leadership, the M&E unit has significantly grown and currently consists of six team members.

Eleanor’s most notable career achievements include three education evaluations conducted by JET as part of the National Evaluation Plan: the Implementation Evaluation of the Funza Lushaka Bursary Programme; the Implementation Evaluation of the National School Nutrition Programme; and the Implementation Evaluation of the National Curriculum Statement Grade R to 12 - Focusing on the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements. Eleanor was the lead evaluator on these studies, and the evaluations influenced policy and programming nationally, solidifying JET’s reputation for quality evaluation in the education sector.

Another project Eleanor worked on was the evaluation of the R-Maths project in the Western Cape, which was selected and profiled by the Learning at Scale Initiative as one of six programmes worldwide that have been successful in improving early-grade numeracy outcomes at scale.

Eleanor is a proud member of the South African Monitoring and Evaluation Association (SAMEA) and was involved in organising the evaluation hackathon that SAMEA hosted in 2021 which catalysed the development of new Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) evaluation guidelines (equity, ecosystems health, virtual evaluation) and the undertaking of rapid evaluations. Additionally, she is part of SAMEA’s M&E for a Just Community of Practice (CoP). She serves as a co-leader of the strand ‘M&E for Continuous Adaptive Management, Reflection, and Learning’ at the 2024 SAMEA conference.

She’s also proud of the JetSetters who were part of the M&E team and are now doing great work in the M&E and education ecosystems beyond JET. These include Dr Hazel Mugo, Zenobia Petersen, Miriam Chikwanda, Tshepo Baloyi, Lesedi Matlala, Benita Reddi-Williams and Milisa Janda.

In 2023, Eleanor spearheaded an Outcome Harvesting project at JET which looks back at the last three JET strategy periods and documents outcomes in the form of policy, behavioural, and social changes resulting from JET’s work. She believes that this initiative will strengthen JET’s organisational monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) processes and systems. A few years ago, Eleanor and her team developed an M&E strategy that aligned with the broader JET strategy. However, the team’s focus has now shifted to contributing to the development of JET’s new strategy and the Outcome Harvesting exercise in one such contribution.

Eleanor promotes innovation and continuous improvement in her division by encouraging team members to explore their interests in the field of education and M&E, join CoPs, and present their work to a wider audience. For example, one of her team members, Jaya, is involved in national and international MERL-tech CoPs while Dineo, another team member, will be co-presenting on early-grade literacy research at the Literacy Association of South Africa (LITASA) conference in 2024.

Looking ahead 10 years, Eleanor envisions a new generation of JetSetters - some of whom currently hold junior and mid-level positions - taking the lead in the organisation, She believes that JET will continue being a thought- leader, innovating, pushing boundaries and advancing equity in education, not only in South Africa but across the continent. She hopes that the work the JET team is doing now will result in improved education quality and stronger education systems for future generations.