Principals' views on challenges of their school governance roles

Abstract

This article explores principals' views regarding governance challenges they experience at schools. We conducted focus group interviews with primary and secondary school principals, purposely and conveniently selected from township schools in two Gauteng Province's districts. We found that principals were challenged mostly by having to balance their roles as ex officio school governing body members and their roles as bona fide members of school governing bodies (SGBs). Other challenges found were confirmatory of other school governors' views as reported in numerous studies, related to among others, the specialist nature of governance functions, poor training of school governors, difficulties associated with governor recruitment and unwillingness of parents to serve as governors. There is therefore a need for a re-clarification of the principals' roles, in terms of both their ex officio and bona fide SGB membership with regard to governance in the context of the functioning of the schools. This should include a review of the governing body structure, the re-allocation of specialist functions, customized and needs-based training of school governors and aspects relating to the general functioning of SGBs.

Keywords:

• Governance
• school governance
• democratic governance
• participatory governance
• accountability
• ex officio member
• bona fide member
• mutual responsibility

Notes on Contributors

Mgadla Isaac Xaba is Associate Professor in the School of Educational Sciences at the North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus. His research interests are educational management, with special focus on school leadership, school governance and organizational development and organizational behaviour.

Velaphi Aaron Nhlapo is Senior Lecturer in the School of Educational Sciences at the North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus. His research interests are educational management, with special focus on school governance, school facilities management, school safety and security and comparative education.