Magister Educationis - MEd / A larger number of schools in Lesotho are owned and controlled by churches whereas the government pays teachers’ salaries and provides school facilities through the national budget. It is through this partnership that the Lesotho government and the churches have a strong link that characterises the Lesotho school management system. However, there have been some major shifts taking place in the education sector of Lesotho that are affecting the way schools are organised, managed and governed. The BCP government considered to revise all the education bills which resulted in the enactment of the LEA of 1995. The LEA of 1995 vested the responsibility of the management of primary schools on democratically elected committees. The study investigated the working relationships between principals and chairpersons of school management committees (SMCs) of selected church primary schools in Lesotho. The focus of the study was to analyse the working relationships between principals and chairpersons of the SMCs towards their roles and responsibilities as set out in the LEA of 1995. The study was approached from the capability approach. The core of the capability approach is to evaluate the achievement of a society by paying attention to what its members are able to be and to do. One of the roles of the SMCs is to allocate resources in schools by recommending for the appointment of teachers. Therefore, the study utilised the capability approach in order to explore the freedoms that principals have towards choosing resources that they want for schools. The study adopted the qualitative research approach. Data was collected through three qualitative research instruments namely, semi-structured interviews, observations and document analysis. The interviews were conducted for 16 participants who comprised the chairpersons of the two SMCs (RCC and LEC), principals’ representatives, teachers’ representatives and principals who were non-members of the SMCs. The purpose of the observations was to observe the physical environments, the behaviours of schools as well as the general availability of resources. Document analysis was done in order to draw on the conclusions of the contents of the SMCs’ records of minutes, schools’ financial reports and progress reports. The researcher used different methods of data collection in order to find answers to the research questions and also to achieve the aims of the study. The researcher used both constant comparative method and content analysis to analyse data. The data was analysed and interpreted against the views of the participants and literature review. The study confirmed that in both of the SMCs, most of the principals generally had satisfactory working relationships with the chairpersons. The findings of this study revealed that even though the SMCs perform their roles and responsibilities as set out in the LEA of 1995, there are some broad challenges that church schools face that emanate from the social conversion factors such as social norms, culture and practices within church schools, and environmental conversion factors like geographical locations. The findings further revealed that lack of adequate resources such as classrooms and teachers hampered the teachers’ capability to deliver instruction in a normal way because they had to teach multi-grades. These were found to be the challenges that affected the principals’ freedoms and capabilities to use and convert resources into achievement. Furthermore, the study exposed fair decision-making regarding resource allocation by the SMCs. Principal were free to use school funds as long as they submit the financial reports to the SMCs at the end of the year. However, the conclusion drawn from document analysis showed that not all the schools under study submitted financial reports. The findings reflect that there are no transparent guarantees in some of the school regarding the control and use of school funds. The findings of this study have some implications and recommendations to the Ministry of Education and training, church schools, teachers and principals who wish to work in church schools. The study recommends that the Ministry of Education and Training should reconsider the representation of one principal for six schools in the SMCs by establishing the school management system that calls for one school management committee per school. The Ministry of Education and Training in partnership with churches should make efforts to delineate the appropriate roles of churches in the provision of education with regard to the local hiring system whereby the SMCs select teachers to be appointed in their schools. Teachers should be transferred to the schools where multi-grade teaching is still practised in order to rationalise distribution of teachers in church schools. Principals and teachers should make informed decisions when choosing the schools that they want to work at, especially if it is a church school. They should make sure that the church schools they choose to be appointed to shall serve their beliefs, not only to focus on salaries.

Uganda endorsed school-based management (SBM) through the enactment of the Education Act (2008), which provided for the establishment of the School Management Committees (SMCs) in public primary schools to be in charge of managing schools on behalf of the government. The Act states that SMCs are specifically in charge of Universal Primary Education (UPE) in Uganda and are responsible for the successful implementation of the policy. The purpose of this study was to investigate the roles of SMCs in the accountability for the UPE achievements. This study is rooted in the interpretivist constructionist research paradigm. The researcher utilised semi-structured interviews and observations to generate data to answer the research questions. The qualitative approach enabled the researcher to interact with the participants in order to harness their primary voice while sharing their lived experiences in the real world. Data obtained from the interviews and observations were corroborated with document analysis data related to SBM and accountability for universal basic primary education achievement. The researcher used multiple research sites and participants to generate data, a case study approach which is more robust in comparative data. The sampling for the participants was purposive and four SMCs from four regions of Uganda and four participants from each of the SMCs were selected. The findings of the study indicate that the voluntary SMCs did implement the roles and responsibilities for UPE accountability, though there were diverse degrees of success. The differing measures of SMC effectiveness were as a result of factors such as: member capacity and perceptions; lack of policy implementation; other stakeholder actions: and inadequate resources. The importance of a volunteerism strategy as a cornerstone of UPE implementation was eminent in this study since the schools were poorly resourced partly due to high poverty levels in the community. The researcher concludes that the effectiveness of the SMC in monitoring the implementation of UPE is based on the relationship they have with other stakeholders and, thus, a model was developed to emphasise the importance of the relationships. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Education Management and Policy Studies / PhD / Unrestricted

Doctor Educationis / This thesis investigated the leadership approach associated with sustained improved academic performance of principals heading National Strategy for Learner Attainment (NSLA) schools. The research problem addressed the leadership practices and personality traits that characterised the leadership approaches of principals heading high schools which have achieved long-term academic improvement amongst the schools undergoing the NSLA interventions. The main research question was: What leadership practices and personality traits characterised the leadership approaches of principals heading schools who have achieved long-term academic improvement amongst the schools undergoing the NSLA interventions? Thereafter, four subsidiary research questions guided this research. Firstly, what were the leadership practices of principals in selected successful NSL schools? Secondly, what personality traits characterised these principals? Thirdly, what learning and teaching challenges did principals heading these schools face? Lastly, how did these principals address the learning and teaching challenges in these schools? The literature and past research supported and provided information that leadership at schools plays a pivotal role for teaching and learning to be successful. However, the literature does not prescribe a specific leadership approach, but recommended a contingency leadership approach. The contingency leadership approach was used as the theoretical framework for this study. This approach recognises that there is no single preferred style of leadership and that the situational context must be taken into account for leadership to be effective. The study was guided by the qualitative methodological paradigm which is embedded in the interpretivist approach in order to develop rich and in-depth descriptions and meaning, feelings and experiences gathered from respondents. The case study as a qualitative research design was used to collect, analyse and interpret data from principals, teachers and selected members of the School Management Team (SMT). The population comprised of fifteen high schools in the Metro Central Education District, Cape Town that underwent the NSLA intervention. However, the investigation took place at five schools in the Metro Central Education District and participants remained part of this initiative for more than three consecutive years. These schools are resident in a wide area on the Cape Flats. All principals at the time, were permanently appointed. Two research instruments were used. A questionnaire to collect data about the leadership of principals was completed by post level one teachers. This questionnaire covered three areas, the biometric information of the respondent, the leadership behaviour of the principal and the leadership approach promoting teaching and learning. A semi-structured interview was done with the principal and selected members of the Schools Management Team (SMT). Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the questionnaire. To analyse the semi-structured interviews, categories and themes were used to maximise the information collected. Through qualitative research the researcher was able to develop rich and in-depth descriptions of meaning, feelings and experiences through analysis. The study concluded that to achieve long-term academic improvement amongst NSLA schools an integrated leadership approach for principals is recommended. This approach encapsulates the various leadership approaches and the leadership personality traits or characteristics of the principals as well as taking into account the situational context for effective leadership and decision-making. Limitations in respect of this research were enumerated. Finally, recommendations based on the conclusions were highlighted including recommendations for further investigation.