Enhancing interest in active citizenry through democratic governance of schools, stakeholder participation and strong partnerships

Abstract

The South African government has identified parent and community involvement in children’s education as one area which has the potential to impact education outcomes positively. International and local research confirms the critical role of parents in their children’s education in order to maximise learning outcomes. School governing bodies (SGBs) have been established by government to address a number of school matters for the smooth running of public schools. Numerous scholars and organisations concur that the mammoth task bequeathed on the SGBs cannot be fully realised without the active participation of all relevant stakeholders and communities with vested interest in education. This study explored the democratic governance of schools, stakeholder participation and establishment of strong partnerships in South African public schools, North West Province-Dr Kenneth Kaunda District. It focused on SGB executive members, principals as representatives of the Head of Department, and chairpersons of SGB committee of six institutions. The study was conducted using six case studies with pseudo names. The executive members comprised of the chairpersons, secretaries, treasurers and included the SQLTC chairpersons. The aim of the study was to determine the role of governors on enhancing interest in active citizenship of education stakeholders and strengthening partnerships in their communities and the wider society in South African public schools. The study used qualitative methodology in the form of conducting interviews and doing document analysis. The study has revealed that despite an enabling policy environment that mandates democratic participation by parents and communities in schools as partners both in their children’s education and in school governance and management, effective participation of parents, stakeholders and community in education is dwindling. It was also evident from the interviews that the training offered on an ad hoc basis was insufficient to address their gaps. Furthermore, accountability and skills audit are not normalised in schools including regular self-assessment to inform election or re-election, co-option of SGB members, and training needs and relevant topics or programmes to close the existing gaps. It was disappointing to discover based on the few schools that participated in this study, that the initiatives taken by our government and the education sector to redress active participation of parents and other stakeholders such as business, were ineffective. This is despite the developed framework that encourage and guide schools on engaging with parents and communities to work together to maximise learning outcomes and learner achievement. However, unless relevant and implementable policies are put in place to this effect, never will there be active community and stakeholder participation in the governance of all schools. Faint definition of terms like stakeholder, community and community participation can have a great bearing on the success and evaluation of any intervention program implemented to enhance stakeholder and community participation. Public participation framework, social capital and governance are issues that still need to be critically looked at in order to improve governance. Non-governmental organisations with long experience and expertise in strategies and techniques for mobilising communities can play a significant role in the effectiveness of SGBs in enhancing stakeholder participation and strengthening partnerships in schools. This study also revealed that the constitution of the RSA and related school policies were not effectively implemented by SMTs, internal school monitoring and evaluation functions were not carried out as expected by SGBs. In conclusion, this study presents practical solutions to the identified gaps in this study. It also suggests flexible proposals that pinpoint the steps that schools and the department need to take to encourage more active and evocative participation by internal and external stakeholders including the business sector. Skilful and highly capacitated SGBs turn out to be the fulcrum for participation of communities in the education of their children. Therefore, regular evaluation of the training provided should be done in order to maximise individual contribution of SGB members, as well as track progress on the performance during follow-up visits to schools. How the SGBs are able to achieve community and stakeholder participation can thus be drawn from this paper.