The challenges of whole school evaluation for school governing bodies in Hlabisa district Kwazulu Natal Province

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: South Africa has a long history of apartheid and other forms of unfair discriminationin education. In the past there were separate and unequal school and educationsystems based on ethnicity, race and colour. Following the democratic elections ofApril 1994 a new era in education commenced. The education system wastransformed to a unitary system and a programme of legislation was launched aimedat promoting democratic ideals and practices.Of particular importance to schools was the South African Schools Act (Act No 84 of1996), which granted significant powers to school governing bodies (SGBs) at locallevel. The composition of SGBs was based on elected representation from four mainstakeholder groups, namely parents (in the majority), educators, non-educator staffand learners (in Grade 8 or above), plus the principal ex officio.The powers and functions granted to SGBs were intended to promote participativedecision-making, a sense of ownership and responsibility aimed at promoting the bestinterests of the school. The innovation of SGBs had far-reaching potential to improveschool effectiveness and more importantly to contribute to the growth of democracyin South Africa.In 2001, aimed specifically at ensuring quality education, the government introducedthe National Policy on Whole Schools Evaluation (WSE). The policy unified andintegrated previous approaches to school and teacher assessment and was centred on aschool-based and holistic approach to the monitoring and improvement of schoolquality. Using objective criteria and performance indicators on nine areas offunctioning, the WSE model relied on an ongoing process of school self-evaluation,supported by external auditing and feedback, leading to each school having a schooldevelopment plan (SDP). Ownership and direction of this was envisaged to be animportant responsibility of SGBs. In this way, school improvement and educationalquality became strategically linked to effective school governance.As an educator in the Senior Secondary School phase, the researcher has gainedfruitful insights into schools in the rural and semi-rural areas of Hlabisa District in the province of KwaZulu Natal. This first-hand experience has made him keenly awareof problems and challenges for SGBs in fulfilling their role in implementing theprocesses of monitoring and evaluating school performance in line with WSE.The research therefore aimed to contribute to a better understanding of the particularneeds of SGBs in meeting the requirements ofWSE. The research was structuredtherefore around two aspects: firstly, a conceptual and policy analysis that tried (a) toidentify and explain significant concepts relevant to understanding both schoolgovernance and school evaluation and (b) to identify and explain the legislative andpolicy context by dealing with the relevant documents. This included a briefexplanation and contrast of the policy approaches to governance and schoolassessment in the pre-1994 and post-1994 dispensations. The second, more empiricalpart of the study aimed to investigate the experience of SGBs in practice, by usingquestionnaires and interviews to collect data from a sample of ten schools in theHlabisa district.Based on the responses collected the researcher was able to conclude that there aremany positive signs of healthy development in school governance in the schoolssampled. Particular challenges were also identified relating to the needs of SGBs inorder to implement WSE programmes successfully. These challenges includeddrawbacks caused by illiteracy among school governors, the need for more effectivetraining of SGBs in reaching a full understanding of the governance rights andresponsibilities, and the need to bring about a more inclusive participation of allstakeholders, especially also by learners and non-educator staff in exercises such asWSE.In the light of these challenges, the study was able to make certain practicalrecommendations and suggest questions for future research on the role of schoolgovernance in improving school effectiveness through the Whole School approach.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University