Garth Spencer-Smith

Qualifications:

M.Phil in Monitoring and Evaluation (Stellenbosch University)
M.Ed in Maths Education (University of Cape Town)
B.Sc and B.Sc (Hons) (University of Cape Town)
HDE (PG) Sec (University of Cape Town)

Experience:

12+ years of independent education consulting, including involvement in over 20 independent evaluations as a team leader, project manager, and/or senior researcher
25+ years of Mathematics teaching and management experience in government and private schools in South Africa, Namibia and the UK

Philosophy:

Garth is passionate about education and sees it as one of the keys to a prosperous future for South Africa (or any other country).

Government bodies, funding organisations and NGOs have put hundreds of millions of Rands into education interventions in recent years. Some of these interventions have not been evaluated. Not evaluating such interventions means that, at best, less is learnt about what has worked and what hasn't, and, at worst, the wastage of scarce funding on continuing with projects that are not having the desired positive impact. This is why much of Garth's work since 2012 has been in the M&E space: completing several evaluations of education interventions.

Garth - through his position as a Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg - has also published several articles in peer-reviewed academic journals on the evaluation work he and his teammates have completed. These publications ensure that, where the client is prepared to allow for this, the findings and learnings from the evaluations are shared publically such that others can learn from what has gone before.

Mathematics is the subject area on which Garth focuses most of his attention and energy, as it is his primary area of expertise and interest, and since South Africa has such an enormous need for improvement in this area.

Garth is also known as The Maths Dean. More information and reviews of his mathematics teaching and tutoring can be found here: