A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Master’s Degree in Development Theory and Policy
University of the Witwatersrand
31 March 2015 / The aim of this research was to analyze the restructuring of the post-apartheid South African
education system through the decentralization introduced in the South African Schools Act of 1996
(SASA). SASA was intended to construct a new education landscape for school governance
involving School Governing Bodies (SGBs) and founded on participation and partnership between
state, parents, learner, school staff and community. SASA ostensibly bestowed powers upon the
SGBs, however this research explores whether the schools used in the study were really
empowered by SASA. Two schools were investigated, one in an affluent area and the other in an
underprivileged area. The investigation was in context of the impact of decentralisation of service
delivery in developing countries, the adoption of SASA and reforms in the education system from
apartheid to date. A qualitative methodology was used and analysis of fourteen semi-structured
interviews produced four findings. First, the study corroborated others which suggest that neoliberalism
is imbedded in South African public schools and that parents have to pay for quality
education. Second, the SGB from the Privileged School executed their projects and tasks well as
compared to the Underprivileged School, since its SGB involved parents that were professionals,
with financial backing and the know how to fund raise so that the school was able to provide
resources for the learners. Third, the minimal use of SASA powers was not the sole reason for
inequality in educational provision, the study also looked into the apartheid historical past which
also contributed to inequality Finally the post-apartheid (Bantu) education system was a
contributing factor to the Underprivileged School SGB’s incapability to utilise all its powers in
that ‘Bantu education’ had failed to equip parents from underprivileged backgrounds with the
knowledge to exercise all the powers granted to them by SASA, in particular, most parent/s from
the underprivileged school had not been equipped with professional degrees or acquired significant
skills to confidently partake in the SGB. The study concludes that SASA seems to have not fully
taken cognisance of the realities of SGBs in the Underprivileged School since it seems likely,
based on my single case study, that their members would not be able to fully implement all the
powers given to them by SASA, indicating the need for state intervention. / MT2017
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/22123 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Melaphi, Nompumelelo |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Online resource (77 leaves), application/pdf |
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