The problems concerning the future management of state-aided (Model C) schools fall into two main categories, namely problems intrinsic to the Model C schools and the problem of giving substance to the stated vision of the ANC. Model C schools were seen as a South African model of school self-management. A study of the literature relating to school self-management in general, and how it is practised in various countries, was made and the management of state-aided (Model C) schools was analyzed. A impirical investigation was conducted to ascertain the perceptions of various role-players in school management about their duties and responsibilities in this regard. A model for the self-management of state-aided schools, based on the Caldwell and Spinks' s model, and conforming to various criteria, is proposed. The proposed model is, in the opinion of the researcher, applicable not only to State-aided schools, but to all schools in South Africa as it allows individual schools to accept as much or as little self-management as is consistent with the capacity of their communities to provide effective and efficient service. It also allows schools to accept increases in self-management as their communities gain in management skills and expertise. / Educational Studies / D.Ed. (Educational Management)

At an international level, demands for accountability in respect of the quality of teaching and learning in higher education are increasing. This is also the case in South Africa. The response to these demands has taken the form of the introduction of quality assurance systems to higher education. In South Africa, a formal national external quality assurance was introduced to the higher education system in 2001 as a result of the establishment of the Higher Education Quality Committee. The Higher Education Quality Committee is a standing committee of the South African Council on Higher Education. Like other quality assurance agencies across the world, the Higher Education Quality Committee has the responsibility for i) auditing institutions of higher education and ii) accrediting learning programmes. The first cycle of institutional audits ran from 2004 until 2011. As quality assurance was introduced to the higher education system and the first cycle of institutional audits began, universities in South Africa developed policies and procedures intended to assure quality in three areas of their core functioning: research, teaching and learning and community engagement. The University of Venda, which is the focus of the study on which this thesis is based, was no exception. As a practitioner in the Centre for Higher Education Teaching and Learning at The University of Venda, it was my observation that the policies and procedures intended to assure quality in teaching and learning were not always implemented by academic staff members. This was in spite of poor student performance data which raised questions about the quality of the teaching and learning processes in place. The study underpinning this thesis was designed to explore this phenomenon. More specifically, it aimed to identify the conditions enabling and constraining the implementation of policies and procedures in two Schools in the University: the School of Health Sciences and the School of Human and Social Sciences. In order to explore these conditions, I adopted Roy Bhaskar’s Critical Realism as an under-labouring philosophy for the study. Critical realism posits a view of reality comprising three strata, none of which can be reducible to the other. The first of these strata is termed the level of the Empirical and consists of the experiences and observations which become apparent to us through the senses. The second layer, the Actual, consists of events from which these experiences and observations emerge. Underpinning both of these layers is a further layer, the Real, which is not accessible by empirical means and which consists of structures and mechanisms which generate both events at the level of the Actual and experiences and observation at the level of the Empirical. The design of my study sought to reach this deepest layer of reality to identify these mechanisms. Bhaskar’s critical realism is philosophy which needs to be operationalized using substantive, or explanatory, theory. For this purpose, I drew on Margaret Archer’s social realism. The design on my study drew on case study methodology and involved in-depth interviews with members of the two Schools which each formed cases within the more overarching case of the University itself. In addition to these interviews, I analysed a range of institutional documents related to the assurance of quality in teaching and learning. The exploration of enabling and constraining conditions at the level of the Real allow me to make a series of recommendations in the final Chapter of my thesis intended to enhance the quality assurance system introduced to the University.

MEd (Educational Management) / Department of Educational Management / This longitudinal research study investigated the attendance and academic performance of teen mothers enrolled at two schools in the Luvuvhu Circuit, Vhembe District, of the Limpopo Province over a period of two years, 2014 and 2015. Apart from this, it also sought out to examine factors in the school and home that influenced the schooling of teen mother learners (TMLs) and the available support that were provided to teen mothers with the aim of improving their poor performance in schools. The study used a qualitative approach and data were collected by means of school documents such as mark schedules and attendance registers and focus group interviews from a total of 40 participants from the two sampled schools. Purposive sampling was used to select 10 teen mother learners, 10 teachers and 20 other learners who were in the same school with the teen mother learners. Tables were used to present data on teen mother learners’ school performance and attendance in 2014 and 2015 in order to find out how their performance changed before, during and after pregnancy. Data from interviews was analysed using the thematic approach according to four themes. The main findings from the study were that both schools had over 20 teen mother learners, teen mother learners performance was good to fair in Tshivenda but poor in English and extremely poor in Mathematics and Science and most of them did not have marks in the last two subjects. Every month, teen mothers did not come to school for some days due to home problems such as baby being ill, taking baby to clinic for immunisation, collecting grant money and household duties. The general picture that actually emerged relationship-wise, within the school between teachers and non-mother or ordinary learners could generally be referred to as differing depending mostly on the pregnancy stages. This study revealed that teen mothers had some causes for being absent from school and for not being able to perform well at school. The factors were found both in the home and the school, such as illness during pregnancy, baby sitting and taking baby to clinic for immunisation, home duties, having to collect monthly government child grants, being ridiculed by other learners at school. With respect to support given to teen mothers by the school and the family or in the home, most teen mothers and teachers indicated in the interviews that not much was given to them. Based on little support for teen mother learners from the school and the home, the study recommended that there should be nurses and counsellors or social workers at schools, extra lessons to be organised by principals, religious leaders to be invited to pray for them and rules to be formulated by the school so that they are not ridiculed by other learners and teachers

[pt] O objetivo deste trabalho é contribuir para o debate sobre políticas de accountability educacional através da avaliação do programa cearense Prêmio Escola Nota Dez. Para tal, partimos do referencial da teoria democrática e da administração pública sob o prisma dos fundamentos de teoria social de Coleman visando construir uma abordagem analítica capaz de considerar não apenas os objetivos e resultados da política, mas seu contexto e tipos de incentivos, em um modelo de ação que leve em conta os agentes, recursos que dispõem e ações que empreenderam ao nível micro e que se agregam para modificar a realidade ao nível macro. Sendo um de dois sistemas de incentivos do PAIC - Programa Alfabetização na Idade Certa, o prêmio busca incrementar o desempenho do sistema escolar promovendo competição entre escolas por uma premiação dada às 150 primeiras de acordo com um ranking. Para moderar possíveis danos desta competição à equidade do sistema, o programa provê também um apoio, como forma de compensação, ás 150 escolas pior posicionadas. Além disso, tenta integrar as escolas beneficiadas em relações de cooperação, na qual as premiadas devem ajudar as apoiadas a cumprir suas metas. Utilizando-se de dados da Prova Brasil e do SPAECE, realizamos um estudo de série temporal com objetivo de avaliar os impactos líquidos do prêmio em relação à outras ações no âmbito do PAIC. Embora preliminares, os resultados indicam impactos em língua portuguesa no SPAECE, mas que não se reproduzem em matemática ou na Prova Brasil. No que diz respeito à equidade, observou-se que a estabilização dos indicadores de equidade da rede coincidiu com a introdução do prêmio. Mensuramos também os impactos dos incentivos pagos às escolas por meio de análise de regressão descontinua e observamos que os ganhos das escolas premiadas se concentraram na avaliação de disputa do prêmio, enquanto que os das escolas apoiadas se concentraram na avaliação de cumprimento de metas. No que diz respeito à equidade, os ganhos das escolas premiadas no SPAECE foram alcançados com aumento do percentual de alunos em nível adequado, porém com aumento da desigualdade interna, enquanto que os ganhos das escolas apoiadas indicam melhoria da equidade e aumento do percentual de alunos no nível adequado. Enquanto os efeitos positivos para as escolas apoiadas continuam a ocorrer ao longo do ciclo do prêmio, os ganhos das escolas premiadas parecem ser conjunturais e restritos à avaliação em que ocorre a competição. Por fim, concluímos que a maior lição que nos mostra o Estado do Ceará é que não basta um programa de bonificação ou distribuição de recursos: uma visão integrada que busque coordenar as ações entre agentes em diversos níveis institucionais e entes federativos pode ser um dos fatores decisivos para o sucesso das políticas cearenses. / [en] The objective of this is to contribute to the discussion about educational accountability policies through the evaluation of the program Prêmio Escola Nota Dez in the Brazilian state of Ceará. Therefore, our references como from Democratic Theory and Public Management, in the perspective of Coleman s Social Theory. Our aim is building an analytical approach able to consider the policies objectives and results, as well as its context and types of bonus, focusing on an action model that considers the agents, the resources they have and the actions they implement in a micro perspective that turns into a macro social change. There are two rewarding systems in the program Alfabetização na Idade Certa (PAIC in portuguese), and Escola Nota Dez Award is oneof them. It aims on increasing the performance of the school system by promoting competition among schools for an award given to the first 150 ones according to ranking. In order to control possible damages coming from this competition that could affect system equity, the program also provides a support, as a way of compensation, to the 150 worst-off schools in the ranking. Therefore, it tries to integrate the benefited schools into cooperative relations, in which the awarded schools must help the supported ones to fulfill their goals. Using dta from Prova Brasil and from the Basic Education Permanent Evaluation System of Ceará State (SPAECE in portuguese), we have conducted a time series analysis focusing on the impacts of this award in relation to other actions of PAIC. Even preliminary, the results indicate impacts on portuguese outcomes in SPAECE, but they do not show up in mathematics or on Prova Brasil. It was also observed that the stabilization of equity indicators of the educational system coincided with the time when the award was established. We have also measured the impacts of the prize paid to schools through the analysis of regression discontinuity, and we have observed that the benefits for the awarded schools focused on the evaluation of the competition for the prize, while the supported schools focused on assessing the goals achievement. Concerning equity, the achiavements of the awarded schools in SPAECE were accomplished in inequality inside the schools, while the achievements of the supported schools indicate an improvement in equity and an increase in the percentage of students at the satisfactory level. The positive effects for the supported schools continue to occur throughout the period of the award, while the benefits for the awarded schools seem to be temporary and restricted to the time of the competition. Finally, we conclud that the greatest lesson that Ceará state shows us is that a program of bonuses or resources distribution is not enough - an integrated vision that focuses on coordinating action among agents at different institutional levels and federative entities may be one of decisive factors for the succes of Ceará s policies.