Assessing challenges faced by school governing bodies in formulating a language policy in a rural primary school in Butterworth

Abstract

The promulgation of the South African Schools Act in 1996 led to the decentralisation of the governance of schools in South Africa through the establishment of School Governing Bodies (SGB). The SGB represents all the stakeholders namely parents, teachers, students and the state,and is expected to craft the vision, mission and policies of a school among its key responsibilities. Among the key policies they need to craft is the language policy of a school which is critical for academic achievement by the students. The study aims to assess the challenges faced by SGB parent governors in formulating a language policy in a rural primary school in Butterworth Education District in the Eastern Cape. A qualitative research approach was pursued in the study through a constructivist paradigm. A rural primary school was chosen as a case study and data was collected by using semi-structured interviews and document analysis. The South African Schools’ Act empowers the parent component of the SGB to have a final say in governance and policy matters of the school due to its majority membership however the study has confirmed what the literature says that the parental participation in SGB activities tends to be limited. The study has found that this poor parental participation in SGB activities is due to low level of education, poor training by the Department of Basic Education and lack of support from stakeholders. According to the Departmental officials the scarcity of financial resources has led to very few training workshops being organised SGB members.