COMMUNITY PERCEPTIONS ABOUT

Abstract

After the establishment of the first democratic government in South Africa, the Education Ministry committed itself to transforming the education system through developing new policies and legislation aimed at achieving equitable access to education and improving the quality of education. One of the school reform policies is the South African Schools Act (SASA), which is aimed at democratizing and improving school education. It does so by decentralizing responsibilities and powers on schools, thereby promoting democratic governance of schools by School Governing Bodies (SGBs), which are comprised of parents, educators, non-teaching staff, and learners in case of secondary schools. The South African Schools Act imposes a responsibility on all public school governing bodies to do their utmost to improve the quality of education in their schools by raising additional resources to supplement those which the state provides from public funds (section 36). All parents are encouraged to increase their own direct financial and other contributions to the quality of their children’s education in public schools. The main aim of this study was to investigate the factors that explain how the community of a rural school in Bushbuckridge District, Njanji Primary School (Mpumalanga Province) interpret and implement the policy on the payment of school fees. A case study of Njanji Primary School was done to explore how the community participates in the payment of school fees. The research instruments used in carrying out this study were interviews, documentary data analysis, participatory and non-participant observation of SGB and parents meetings. Interviews were conducted with educators, parents, SGB members and the principal of the school. The study shows that while the community understands the requirements of the policy, they are not implementing it the way they are expected because of the notion of “free education” for all that was announced by the ANC prior to the 1994 elections. Many poor families cannot afford to pay school fees for their children