School governing bodies: the impact on school principals

[摘要] Fundamentally, the new school governance policy brought to life by the South AfricanSchools Act of 19iv, intended to transform and restructure education governance inpublic schools, so that through full representation and participation of all roleplayers/stake-holders in school governance through their School Governing Bodies(SGB), effective governance of schools could be attained and enhanced. What emergesfrom the practice is that in exception of intended effects, this policy also yields unintendedeffects. These unintended effects then, tend to counteract the basic objective of the newschool governance policy. Hence the aims of this study are two-fold: (a) to explorecritically the impact of SGB on school principals in the Klerksdorp/Potchefstroom region,and to highlight the dynamics of relationships, and modus operand! of both SGB andschool principals, and what it takes to promote partnerships that will alternatively result ineffective school governance.The critical exploration of the impact of SGB on school principals in theKlerksdorp/Potchefstroom region was conducted through a survey method. Randomlyfifteen public secondary schools were selected from former education departments. Datagathering techniques comprised of structured questionaires, unstructured, open-endedinterviews, observation of formal meetings and the study and analysis of relevantdocuments. Analysis of data was carried out in terms of Bell's, (1993, p. 127) criterion:What emerged out of this study was that the new policy yielded significant changes interms of:- (i) power relations, (ii) decision-making processes, (iii) levels of accountabilityand (iv) responsibility, (v) general compliance with legal and constitutional requirementsbut with little or no shift in mindset (paradigm), (vi) an increase in workload of principals(especially in African schools) due to lack of capacity and finally (vii) intentional orunintentional failure to embrace certain reforms. These outcomes constitute intended andunintended effects.On the basis of the above-mentioned outcomes one may conclude by agreeing with'Thomas (1992, p. 127) assertion that: 'The dilemma of school reform arises from therelationship between school governors and professionals within schools”. Certainlytransformation of school governance in Souih Africa is likely to experience this samedilemma. Secondly Mortimore and Mortimore (1991, p. 128) in turn alleged that: -'Under both the 1986 Act and the Education Reform Act of 1988, School GoverningBodies have increased powers and responsibilities, the exercise of which called, for arethinking of relationships between a head teacher and his/her S..G.B.” Like-wise theS.A.S.A of 1996, empower SGBs through the transference of certain roles andresponsibilities to them. A review of relationships between school principals and S.G.Bwithin every public school in South Africa is a must, if school principals and F G.B, aimat attaining effective governance in their schools in line with the S.AS.A of 1996 and theConstitution of the R. S. A 1996.Key words1- school governing bodies; school principals; roles and responsibilities;effective partnerships; governance policy; levels of accountability and responsibility;relationships; review and reconceptualisation; power relations; stakeholders.

[发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand