The Schools Act has brought about a change in the way in which schools are managed and governed. Each public school should be governed by a governing body and the professional management of the school is vested in the principal (South African Schools Act, 1996b). The governing body of a special needs school consists of various role-players that include, among others, parents, educators, learners, and representatives of sponsoring bodies and of various organisations. Furthermore, these role-players should be knowledgeable about the legal requirements pertaining to the functions of a governing body. It is legally expected of each governing body member to know what the legal requirements of a governing body are. The governing body is expected to draft the school’s policies, such as the language policy, admission policy, religious policy, disciplinary policy and the financial policy (Schools Act, 1996). There are various types of public schools: mainstream schools [full-service schools] and special needs schools [special needs schools as resource centres] (DoE, 2005). Very little research has been conducted on the governance of special needs schools. The governance of a special needs school is more complicated than that of a mainstream school in respect to drafting the various policies. There are aspects such as limited resources to accommodate specific disabilities and the type of disability that the school caters for in terms of the admission policy that must be kept in mind. These aspects complicate the governance of special needs schools and require more thought and planning (Department of Education, 2007). This research specifically focuses on the governance of special needs schools and the aspirations that the individual governing body members of these schools have. The governing body members come from different backgrounds; they have differentqualifications and different experiences. These factors contribute to the ideas (aspirations) that they have in terms of their role as governing body members. The aspirations of the governing body members should correlate with the various school policies, due to the fact that the governing body draft these policies. The policy documents provide a clear indication of where the school is heading and of its mission. Not only should the governing body participants’ aspirations correlate with the school’s policies; they should also correlate with the legal requirements set out in the Schools Act. This research consists of two separate case studies relating to two special needs schools. Three governing body members from each school were interviewed, using semi-structured interviews. The semi-structured interviews assisted in ensuring that the participants were understood correctly and in getting clarity on certain aspects that were addressed. The various policy documents of each school were analysed to establish an idea of the school’s mission and for the purpose of triangulation. These documents include, among others, the language policy, admission policy, religious policy and the code of conduct for learners. The interview responses and the documents were compared to establish to what extent the governing body members’ aspirations correlate with the policy documents. The schools were not compared in any way; each school was regarded as an individual entity. In this study the following has been found: <ul> <li>1. Governing body members are not fully briefed or knowledgeable about their functions.</li> <li>2. Governing body members refuse to attend training sessions provided by the Head of Department on grounds that these sessions are not meaningful or convenient.</li> <li>3. Most of the schools’ policy documents, such as admission policies, language policies and religious policies have not been revised in up to nine years.</li> <li>4. Some of the participants in the research contradicted one another and the schools’ policy documents.</li> </ul> In conclusion it can be stated that the governing body members who participated in this research have served on governing bodies for many years, the shortest term of service being four years; they should be knowledgeable about their function and should have the best interest of the school at heart. This seems to be in contradiction to the findings of this research. Even though the governing body members lack sufficient knowledge and insight, they are extremely positive and have the best interest of the learner at heart. Copyright / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

Parents, together with the learners, are the customers and therefore major stakeholders of schools. The management of performance is vital for these stakeholders to ensure the most effective application of their resources. Therefore, this research on how SGBs and SMTs in Section 21 Schools apply performance management, at school level, to ensure effective management of the school and its resources was undertaken. Other key questions were: Which performance management tools do these schools use and what are the perceived benefits, gained by the application of performance management at school level? The research was supported by a detailed literature review covering education in South Africa, performance management and the available frameworks to evaluate the application of performance management and to gain a base for the analysis of the empirical data. Qualitative research was chosen as the preferred method of research since this was an exploratory study and qualitative research allowed key factors to emerge. Purposive sampling was used to select the participants in order to obtain insight into the application of performance management and participants‟ perspective of the benefits gained by applying performance management. Interviews were conducted with the principals and a parent representative of each of the SGBs at these schools. An interview guide was used to guide the interviews. The findings showed that all the schools under investigation made use of the Integrated Quality Management System. Participants however agreed that this system was not adequate and they needed to add their own performance management tools in order to maintain their current performance and position as prestigious schools. Although all participating schools were using some form of benchmarking, setting goals and targets, measuring learners‟ performance on all activities and measuring learners‟ behaviour, the findings also revealed that most of the schools did not implement a formal system covering all the dimensions of a school. It was evident from the findings that most of the participating schools benefitted from the application of performance management in the form of effective management and personnel development. Findings from the evaluation of the performance management systems revealed that the implementation of performance management systems is seldom carried through to the final stages and information is not always used to draft strategy in order to improve performance. It was concluded that SGBs and SMTs of the participating schools complied with some requirements indicated in literature to apply performance management systems. However most of the methods or systems are not fully implemented and there are many shortcomings. The findings suggested that the Integrated Quality Management System is reviewed by the Department of Basic Education. Furthermore, it also suggested that schools need to create formal procedures and policies in order to ensure the complete and effective application of performance management and establish a clear link between performance measures and the overall strategy of the school. The study also suggested that the schools‟ management have to design a performance management system, incorporating all the dimensions of their school and refrain from focusing only on incentives. / MCom (Management Accountancy), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

Parents, together with the learners, are the customers and therefore major stakeholders of schools. The management of performance is vital for these stakeholders to ensure the most effective application of their resources. Therefore, this research on how SGBs and SMTs in Section 21 Schools apply performance management, at school level, to ensure effective management of the school and its resources was undertaken. Other key questions were: Which performance management tools do these schools use and what are the perceived benefits, gained by the application of performance management at school level? The research was supported by a detailed literature review covering education in South Africa, performance management and the available frameworks to evaluate the application of performance management and to gain a base for the analysis of the empirical data. Qualitative research was chosen as the preferred method of research since this was an exploratory study and qualitative research allowed key factors to emerge. Purposive sampling was used to select the participants in order to obtain insight into the application of performance management and participants‟ perspective of the benefits gained by applying performance management. Interviews were conducted with the principals and a parent representative of each of the SGBs at these schools. An interview guide was used to guide the interviews. The findings showed that all the schools under investigation made use of the Integrated Quality Management System. Participants however agreed that this system was not adequate and they needed to add their own performance management tools in order to maintain their current performance and position as prestigious schools. Although all participating schools were using some form of benchmarking, setting goals and targets, measuring learners‟ performance on all activities and measuring learners‟ behaviour, the findings also revealed that most of the schools did not implement a formal system covering all the dimensions of a school. It was evident from the findings that most of the participating schools benefitted from the application of performance management in the form of effective management and personnel development. Findings from the evaluation of the performance management systems revealed that the implementation of performance management systems is seldom carried through to the final stages and information is not always used to draft strategy in order to improve performance. It was concluded that SGBs and SMTs of the participating schools complied with some requirements indicated in literature to apply performance management systems. However most of the methods or systems are not fully implemented and there are many shortcomings. The findings suggested that the Integrated Quality Management System is reviewed by the Department of Basic Education. Furthermore, it also suggested that schools need to create formal procedures and policies in order to ensure the complete and effective application of performance management and establish a clear link between performance measures and the overall strategy of the school. The study also suggested that the schools‟ management have to design a performance management system, incorporating all the dimensions of their school and refrain from focusing only on incentives. / MCom (Management Accountancy), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

With education at the centre of the South African government’s National Development Plan for 2030, an effective schooling system is not negotiable. A review of the literature showed that public schools in South Africa are self-managing. The performance of most of these schools are unsatisfactory with specific reference to academic performance, infrastructure, finances and resources. The review further revealed severe shortcomings with the use of the Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS) for school-based performance management. This included that the IQMS is insufficient, that its application is ineffective and that it does not support school-based performance management. It is a compliance system and does not allow schools’ stakeholders the freedom to take part in designing their own strategy for the school. The researcher argues that self-managing schools link to the Participatory Democracy Theory that ensures the involvement of stakeholders. The IQMS however, links to Managerialism, rejecting stakeholders’ independence of self-management and decision-making. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a school-based performance management framework for public schools in South Africa. Specific attention was given to the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) as a theoretical framework for its flexibility to accommodate diverse organisations. The BSC was placed in the Evolutionist theories under the Resource-Based View (RBV) approach, focussing on the uniqueness of organisations’ tangible or intangible resources. The researcher argued that a combination of the IQMS and the BSC might close the theoretical gap and contribute to school-based performance management in self-managing public schools. A qualitative research paradigm, embedded in the interpretivism philosophy, guided this study. A Design-Based Research (DBR) method was followed to develop the framework. The first phase was to develop a preliminary framework, using the IQMS and BSC as existing theoretical frameworks. The second phase consisted of two iterative cycles of testing and refinement of the framework in practice. For both cycles, the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with the school’s principal, one member of the school’s governing body and one member of the school’s management team of the four selected schools. The third phase was a reflection on the design process to enhance the application of the framework. / College of Accounting Sciences / D. Compt.