The study investigated role relationships of School Governing Body (SGB)
chairpersons and principals in school governance in selected primary and secondary
schools in the KwaMashu area. Through the provision of the South African Schools
Act, 84 of 1996; the chairperson and the principal are leaders in the governing body and
school management team respectively. Moreover the principal is an ex-officio member
of the governing body. Literature and my experience as an educator suggested that,
there existed conflict between the parent governors and principals in general; and SGB
chairpersons and principals in particular. The purpose of the study therefore was to
investigate whether or not SGB chairpersons and principals understand their roles in
school governance. This was a multi-site case study of four schools in the same locality.
The study was conducted through semi-structured interviews; observation and
document analysis. The findings suggest that SGB chairpersons and principals appeared
to have an understanding of one’s and each other’s roles. However, a deeper
examination of the situation suggests that this apparent clarity was superficial. It was so
in that from the principals’ perspective, it was fine if chairpersons permanently needed
their assistance in performing their governance duties. It also emerged that the
inexperienced governing body chairpersons and principals lacked adequate
understanding of their governance roles and those of each other. There was apparent
harmonious working between principals and chairpersons which was arising because of
inequality between chairpersons and principals in terms of educational levels. However,
there were areas of conflict between the two parties especially regarding the control of
finances, and the selection and appointment of educators. The study recommends that
schools should design their own training programmes where they could invite
departmental officials or other consultants to train their own people. Schools should also
be adequately linked to centres such as Adult Basic Education and Training to develop
their own people. This will help in equipping parent governors with sufficient knowledge and skills regarding their governance responsibilities. The study also recommends that further studies be conducted around induction programmes to make them more useful. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/920 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Khuzwayo, Senzo. |
| Contributors | Chikoko, Vitallis. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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