Eleanor Hazell, Executive Manager: Monitoring and Evaluation at JET Education Services, will be taking a sabbatical from 5 May to 4 July 2025.
After 12 years at JET and nearly two decades in the M&E field, Eleanor felt this was a good time to pause, reflect on her professional journey, and consider what lies ahead for both herself and JET’s monitoring, evaluation and learning work.
During her time off, she plans to walk parts of the South West Coastal Path in the UK, using the time in nature to recharge and think intentionally about the future. Eleanor is proud of what the M&E team and the contributions JET’s M&E work has made to education in South Africa. “We have led evaluations with national influence, in the national evaluation plan such as the Funza Lushaka Bursary Programme, National School Nutrition Programme, CAPS, supported the design, piloting and scale-up of large-scale education programmes such as R-Maths in the Western Cape, the GDE Grade R Improvement Project and the AASA Education programme, and undertaken evaluations which documented learning and helped improve programmes.”
“The JET Outcome Harvesting exercise undertaken in 2023/2024 identified some of the ways JET evaluations have been influential. We have also made contributions to the national M&E ecosystem through involvement in the South African Monitoring and Evaluation Association (SAMEA), for instance supporting Africa’s first evaluation hackathon, and have hosted and built the capacity of many emerging evaluators and researchers, some of whom are still here, and some of whom have left and are contributing in academia, civil society, donor and government agencies, she adds.”
While she is away, Lucille Smith will be acting in her role. James Keevy and the rest of JET’s Executive Management team will also be available for support.
Eleanor is grateful for the opportunity to take this break and looks forward to returning rejuvenated and ready for the next chapter.
