Browsing by Author "Makhasane, Sekitla Daniel."

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An exploration of how secondary schools in the Qacha's Nek District of Lesotho manage their finances : a case study of three schools.
(2010) Makhasane, Sekitla Daniel.; Mncube, Vusumuzi Sithembiso.
This research explored the phenomenon of school financial management in three secondary schools located in the Qacha’s Nek district of Lesotho. In particular, the study focused on ways in which secondary schools obtain their finances. In addition, this study also discussed ways in which the said schools budget their finances. It explored measures that the schools put in place to monitor and control their budgets. Through the use of purposive sampling, three schools were selected as cases in order to ensure that there was a representation of the type of schools that are found in the Qacha’s Nek district of Lesotho. The principals of the three schools were selected as participants since they are chief accounting officers and as such they have knowledge relevant to this study. Document reviews were used to supplement information obtained from interviews with the principals. This study concluded that the three case study secondary schools obtain financial resources from a number of sources which include, inter alia, sponsors, school fees and fund raising activities. The government also allocate subvention to its schools. Furthermore, the three case study schools prepare their main budgets and department budgets. However, principals play a major role in decisions regarding school budgets. In two schools, for example, the principals provide teachers with guidelines to follow in preparing departmental budgets. With regard to budget monitoring and control this study revealed that there are no clear measures in place regarding schools’ main budgets in the three case study schools though departmental budgets seemed to be well monitored and controlled by the principals. It was also found that there seems to be a lack of policies that guide schools on the management of finances. Schools were also found to use secretaries as bursars though secretaries have limited knowledge of financial matters. In addition, the study revealed that principals, school secretaries and heads of departments need capacity building on financial matters. This study recommends an in-depth investigation of experiences of principals on the use of subvention. The study also recommends, inter alia, formulation of financial policies by schools and changes to the law on school funding by the Ministry of Education and Training.
The heads of department’s instructional leadership role in mathematics teaching and learning in three South African secondary schools in Pinetown District.
(2017) Malloy, Nomthandazo Charity.; Makhasane, Sekitla Daniel.; Mthembu, Pinkie Euginia.
The ever-changing curriculum policies in South Africa have posed challenges in terms of teaching and management strategies to be applied by teachers to meet the standards. At the forefront of these curriculum policy changes is the need for effective leadership and management of teaching and learning. This is so because for any successful school there is successful leadership that focuses on teaching and learning in this regard, Head of Departments (HoDs) are expected to play a significant role in managing curriculum and supervision of teachers. This study sought to explore the Head of Departments’ instructional leadership role in Mathematics teaching and learning in three South African secondary schools. The study was coached into interpretive paradigm and adopted qualitative approach. Data was generated through semi structured interviews and observations. Three Mathematics HODs and seven Mathematics teachers were purposively sampled from case study schools in Mafukuzela Gandhi circuit in Pinetown district. The findings suggest that HODs do not get enough time to perform their duties effectively as they were also engaged in teaching. Furthermore, HODs did not regard instructional leadership as their main role rather they spent most of their time doing administrative tasks. The findings also revealed that all the HODs lack relevant expertise in the subject consequently teachers were not developed effectively in these schools for positive learner performance. Support from the principal and other SMT colleagues was minimal. Conclusions drawn from the findings reveal that HODs understanding of their role is limited to monitoring learner’s and teachers work and protecting teaching time. Supporting teachers required HOD to be competent in Mathematics, teachers did not regard HODs to be useful in that they were not subject expertise. Additionally, balancing their own teaching and management was a challenge that needed attention by the HODs to fully execute their job.
The role of leadership in addressing learner enrolment decline in two Eastern Cape rural junior secondary schools : SMTs perspective.
(2016) Gogo, Desmond Monde.; Mthembu, Pinkie Euginia.; Makhasane, Sekitla Daniel.
This qualitative study explored learner enrolment decline and the perspectives of SMTs regarding their leadership role in addressing learner enrolment decline in two Eastern Cape rural junior secondary. Learner enrolment decline has an impact on the number of teachers that are to be employed in schools. A case study was conducted in two Eastern Cape rural junior secondary schools in Flagstaff town. The participants were SMTs of both rural junior secondary schools. This study was located in the interpretive paradigm. Documents reviewed and semi-structured interviews constitute the research instruments for data generation. This study was framed by Weitzel and Jonsson’s (1989) model of organisational decline and Transformational Leadership Theory. Local, continental and globally scholastic works, on the research topic, were interrogated to seek insights into the progress so far made and determine the agenda to the explored phenomenon of learner enrolment decline. The analysis and discussion of the generated data showed that learner enrolment decline in two Eastern Cape rural junior secondary schools was caused by a myriad of factors such as the following: teacher absenteeism, incompetence of teachers, shortage of teachers , dearth of learner leadership, poverty, lack of resources and migration. The following were the recommendations of the study based on the findings and conclusions: It was suggested that SMTs should initiate leadership workshops within the school. They should invite departmental officials to facilitate them. SMT members should stimulate learners, teachers, parents and other stakeholders to be creative and innovative in addressing learner enrolment decline in those two participant schools. It was suggested that SMT members should empower themselves by initiating conflict management workshops as to alleviate conflict among themselves and their subordinates. Fund raising committee should be established as to raise fund to assist in providing some of the resources such as electricity and water. Recycling should also be promoted so as to improvise for the schools. SMT members should empower teachers and learners with skills of recycling old materials. Technology as a learning area should be enhanced so that learners can be taught to design commodities that can be sold as to alleviate poverty. Learners and the community should be educated on the importance of education. Parental involvement should be promoted. Curriculum should be enhanced. The purpose of the study was to explore SMTs perspectives of their leadership roles pertaining to learner enrolment decline in two Eastern Cape rural junior secondary school. Implications for further study were to do a comparative study of learner enrolment decline phenomenon across districts and provinces including an increased sample size, sample population and time.
The role of leadership in addressing school violence : a case study of two South African schools.
(2014) Makhasane, Sekitla Daniel.; Chikoko, Vitallis.
This study sought to understand the role of leadership in addressing school violence in the context of two South African high schools. School violence is a stumbling block to proper functioning of South African schools. Leadership is regarded as essential for the success or failure of schools. This study was a multiple case of two schools which was couched within the interpretivist paradigm. This paradigm was suitable because it allowed me to study and understand multiple interpretations which the participants attached to the dynamics of violence and their understanding of how leadership tackled school violence. The study adopted qualitative methods of data generation which included document analysis, observation and interviews. For the interviews, a purposive sampling of the participants was adopted. Informed by distributed leadership theory which is based on the assumption that there are multiple leaders in a school, I selected as participants, the principals, the deputy principals, the Heads of Department, teachers and learners. The study was informed by a three pronged framework involving distributed leadership theory, social learning theory and ecosystemic theory. Distributed leadership theory was used to explain the findings on how leadership practices influence school violence. The dynamics of violence were explained through the lens of social and systemic theories. The findings suggest that school violence is a complex, multi-dimensional and dynamic phenomenon. The insights into the dynamics of violence revealed that teachers and learners in the two schools experienced different forms of violence ranging from serious incidents such as physical violence to mild forms like verbal violence. The dynamics also included causes of violence which it was found emanated from different sources. Such sources included, inter alia, learners’ peers, parents and socio-economic factors. With regard to variation and gravity of violence between the two participant schools, it was found that some forms of violence were high in one school while they were low in another school. The last aspect of the dynamics of violence which emerged from this study was relationships within and between forms of violence. The findings showed, for instance, that there was relationship between learner-on-teacher and teacher-on-learner violence because some learners reacted violently to teachers in response to teachers’ violent acts against such learners. This study found that the manner in which the dynamics of violence were addressed in the two schools generally illustrated a dearth of leadership. As a result, teachers were not succeeding in their efforts of tackling violence. Some initiatives taken to address violence tended to be targeted at managing violence. However, some management approaches, such as administering corporal punishment, were also violence and, therefore, had the potential to promote violence instead of reducing it. The study also shows that there were few teachers who exercised leadership and as such some learners did change their violent behaviour. However, the efforts of such teachers were isolated and not co-ordinated hence, the impact of their leadership was limited. I, therefore, argue that leadership is crucial for the reduction of school violence. Violence cannot be reduced if teachers and learners do not exercise leadership.