Parent's understanding of their school governance roles : perceptions of the school management teams (SMTs) and parents.

Abstract

The study investigated perceptions of the School Management Teams (SMTs) and parents in the School Governing Bodies (SGBs) regarding the parents understanding of their roles. The South African Schools Act, 84 of 1996, provided all public schools with powers to run the schools through the SGBs. As an educator and the member of the SMT, I have observed that most governance roles are performed by the Principal and staff in the schools, hence conducted this study. The study was a multi-site case study of three primary schools of Ndwedwe circuit. To collect data the study used three instruments, namely interviews, observation and document analysis. The findings of the study revealed that parents in the School Governing Bodies are not coping with their many roles as they are stipulated by SASA due to their low levels of literacy. Besides illiteracy it seems parents in the SGBs lack information regarding their roles. The study recommends that parents in the SGBs must kept informed, trained and encouraged to upgrade their literacy levels to cope in their governance roles