SCHOOL GOVERNING BODY MEMBERS’ PERCEPTIONS ABOUT THEIR ROLE IN THE GOVERNANCE OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN LESOTHO

Abstract

Although the history of school governance can be traced back to the Dark Ages when boards of trustees were responsible for setting up and running English schools; in many developing countries school governance comes post democracy as part of the transformation of education systems that were highly centralized and segregated towards decentralized, democratic and inclusive systems. The rationale for the transfer of power to School Governing Bodies/Boards (SGB) was that local citizens and school personnel know their school best and, if given the chance, they are in the best position to solve most of the problems experienced by schools (i.e. local solutions to local problems). Empowering schools through SGB’s has also been perceived as a way to increase efficiency, encourage innovation, and combat social inequality and segregation in education. Although decentralization has led to greater autonomy for school governing boards in making decisions at school level; many SGB’s, particularly in the rural and less advantaged urban areas, seem to have difficulty in fulfilling their functions. Some critics argue that a pressing problem in many schools is that the SGB’s do not have a clear understanding of their roles, duties and responsibilities. Similarly in Lesotho the Ministry of Education & Training (MOET) also argued that most of the School Board members have no formal training in management of education. Findings from other studies in Lesotho were that the contribution of the board members is always limited; maybe because they do not have the knowledge and experience. If the School Board members do not know their functions, it means they act oblivious of their mandate and this suggested that there was a problem worth researching. A key question that could be raised is: ‘What are the possible factors that could contribute to the (in)effective functioning of SGB members?’ Although there are many factors that could be attributed to dysfunctional SGB’s, Bandura argued that individuals are more likely to engage in activities for which they have high self-efficacy and less likely to engage in those they do not. Self-efficacy beliefs are therefore an important aspect of human motivation and behavior because they influence the actions that can affect one's life. Consistent with Bandura’s four sources of self-efficacy four research questions were then raised for this study. An example of one of the questions was to what extent do SGB members perceive themselves as having performed their duties successfully? In this study the researcher was interested in the personal experiences of the SGB members which required a description or interpretation of the meanings of phenomena experienced by them as participants in the investigation. Consistent with the descriptions of the various types of phenomenology given in the literature the study adopted the descriptive or hermeneutical phenomenology as an appropriate approach. A total of 10 SGB Chairpersons, 17 School Principals and 39 ordinary board members were purposively sampled to take part in this study. Questionnaires were used to collect data from the 39 board members and interviews were used to collect data from the 17 school principals and the 10 chairpersons. The findings of this study showed as an example, that SGB members who participated in this study generally do not perceive themselves as having performed their duties satisfactorily. This study therefore recommends that SGB members be nominated from those who have at least Cambridge Overseas School Certificate as a basic entry qualification. Basic training of the SGB members on school governance should be mandatory before one assumes duty. Frequent continuous training programmes should be organized in order for the school governance to become effective.