CRITERIA FOR TOP PERFORMING SERVICE BRANDS IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN SOUTH AFRICA

Abstract

This study focused on identifying criteria for top performing service brands in the Public Secondary School Sector. While it is significant that the White Paper on Transforming Public Service Delivery (1997) fore-grounded ‘transforming service delivery’ as the key transformation priority, of the eight identified transformation priorities, it did not elaborate on what effective service delivery entailed or how to achieve it. Improving service delivery in education has been prioritised at both the national and provincial levels in the last year following the African National Congress (ANC) Manifesto released in 2009. Significantly low literacy and numeracy achievements by learners, recorded in national and international assessments and tests in comparison to their international counterparts, have signalled the need to improve service delivery in schools. Focus group interviews were conducted with three groups – School Management Team (SMT), School Governing Body (SGB) and learners - in four top performing schools in the Johannesburg Central District. The findings were useful in deriving criteria for top performing school service brands. Firstly, it was evident from the responses that the basics of learning, teaching and support had to be in place. Teacher and learner commitment, leadership, discipline, and effective forms of communication were attributed to all four school brands as key drivers of their high performance. Secondly, responses reflected how effective and interactive relationships among learners, teachers and parents, as well as, community support of the school, strengthened the implementation of the schools’ operational activities. Thirdly, strong and tested service routines were emphasised by respondents as contributing to the school’s success, specifically providing feedback on learner performance, establishing performance benchmarks, implementing their own and supporting other intervention programmes for learners and rewarding learner performance. It was indicated how the holistic development of the learner was strived for at each of the four schools. Finally, challenges the school faced, that hindered service delivery, were identified by the respondents