Management of Organisational Systems at Township Secondary Schools in the Free State Province

Abstract

This research project employed action research which is grounded in qualitative methodology in order to address the problem statement and the fundamental research questions. The purposive sampling was found to be effective to use in this research. All the groups that were purposefully selected collaborated with me to systematically and carefully examine their performance and practice by using dialectic, phenomenological and hermeneutic methods of research. This study identified a principal as an accounting officer who is authorised by law to coordinate the activities of the teaching personnel; school management teams; representative council of learners; school governing bodies; cleaners and factotums as well as the interviewing panels who are the parts or aspects of the secondary school. Each of the aforementioned persons are expected to pursue a different goal in order to ensure that a secondary school effectively attains its overall goal. However, the principal, including other persons attached to the towship secondary school as mentioned above, dismally perfom their duties. The primary contributory factor to the dismal performance of the township secondary schools in the Free State Province is the politicisation of these schools. This phenomenon gave rise to unionised teachers; as a result of this the South African Democratic Teachers Union which is aligned to the African National Congress collude with the School Governing Body to sell promotional positions/posts to their members. This illegal promotion of the teaching personnel is in contravention of section 7(1)(a) of the Employment of Educators Act No. 76 of 1998 which provides that when an appointment of the teaching personnel is made, the ability of the candidate must be taken into consideration. Not only at the school level are promotional posts sold; this practice is also carried out at the higher echelon of the education system in South Africa. What the study revealed suggests that this type of appointments exacerbates poor perfomance of township secondary schools. The politicisation of township secondary schools breeds a laissez-faire situation which is prevalent at these schools. For example, learners and educators leisurely come late to school and hounor their teaching periods only long after the bell has rung. The toilets and the entire school premises of the secondary schools understudy resemble a pigsty thereby flouting section 24(a) of the Constitution Act 108 of 1996. In addition to this the principal, educators and the school governing body fail to observe common law principles such as contra bonos mores, in loco parentis, bonus patrifamilias et cetera. As a result of this, learners contribute to the unsafe school environment by doing drugs and consuming intoxicating beverages during school hours. In most schools, learners have formed gangs that terrorise the neighbourhood of schools. All these result in them showing no respect to their educators who in turn, are also not showing respect to authority (principal, deputy principal, and heads of departments). Lastly and more importantly, the study also highlightes the fact that the Regulations for Safety Measures at Public Schools are not adhered to (cf. regulations 4(4) & 5 ). For example, learners go to schools armed with dangerous weapons; and in some instances kill each other, and put the life of their educators at risk. What is even more disturbing, is that the outsiders enter school premises at any time during school hours to carry out mischievious and illegal deeds. Apparently, the representative council of learners does not know what its mandate is.