Cape Town - The Western Cape’s Schools Evaluation Authority (SEA) chief evaluator has been announced, and the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has revealed more about who exactly David Millar is.
Millar takes over after the passing of the first chief evaluator Karen Bydell earlier this year.
Millar was born in Manchester – the red side – and is of Irish heritage. He did his formative schooling years in England before coming to South Africa.
He completed his high school years in the Vaal Triangle, an industrial area south of Johannesburg.
He developed a great love for Geography because of his teacher Mrs Koekemoer. All he wanted to do was teach Geography. Teachers made a difference in his life because they knew that they had to sell hope.
Millar matriculated in 1983 and left for Johannesburg to attend the University of the Witwatersrand. He graduated with his under-grad and post-grad degrees in geography and environmental sciences. He also did his post-graduate teacher’s diploma at Wits.
After a two-year stint in the then-SADF, where he graduated as a Lieutenant from Infantry School in Oudtshoorn, Millar started teaching Geography at Suncrest High School in Vanderbijlpark (Gauteng) in 1990 and was promoted to deputy principal in 1999.
He left for Cape Town in 2002, where he started as a contract teacher at Cravenby Secondary, then a teacher at Plumstead HS and, within a year, HOD at Rhodes HS.
In January 2004 he became deputy principal of Norman Henshilwood High School in Constantia and by July that same year he was appointed principal.
Millar completed his Master’s degree in Education Planning and Policy in 2014 at UCT.
His dissertation studied the role that principals play in driving excellence at schools in the Western Cape as instructional leaders.
It is in the classroom where the proverbial “rubber hits the road”, so high-quality teaching and learning can never be compromised.
Miller spent 13 years at Norman Henshilwood High (a Top 20 merit list school for many years) in Metro South before being appointed district director of Metro North education district in 2017.
He spent three tough but great learning, years at Metro North (many high achievement academic awards followed) and was then head-hunted by Naptosa to take over as chief executive officer for the Western Cape.
He was appointed into his current post in April 2020.
Millar said that he intends to promote the SEA as an authority which improves lives by raising standards in education at schools in the Western Cape.
“I intend promoting the SEA as a values-based, transparent and accountable authority where children and learners come first and where standards are judged (and findings reported to the public) without fear or favour.
“In addition, the SEA’s policies, judgements and insights will be evidence-led. SEA staff must act with integrity and impartiality.
“The SEA must be accessible and engaged to our different audiences in different contexts so that we can better understand their needs and always act in the best interests of our learners.”