About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

27 Potchefstroom Elec. L.J. 1 (2024)

handle is hein.journals/per27 and id is 1 raw text is: Pioneer in peer-reviewed, open access online law publications Authors Johan Kruger Johan Beckman Andre du Plessis Affiliation University of Pretoria, South Africa University of the Free State, South Africa University of Pretoria, South Africa Email jhckruger@gmaiLcom johan.beckmann2l@gmail.com duplessis.andre@up.ac.za Date Submission 27 July 2022 Date Revised 24 July 2023 Date Accepted 24 July 2023 Date Published 5 January 2024 Editor Prof N Kilian How to cite this article Kruger J. Beckman J and Du Plessis A, Non-Educator Stakeholders and Public-School Principals' Views on the Proposed Amendments to the South African Schools Act 84 of 1996 PER / PELJ 2024(27) - DOI http://dx.doi.org/1 0.17159/1 727- 3781/2024/v27i0a14463 Copyright cc* DOI http://dx.doi.org/1 0.17159/1 727- 3781/2024/v27i0a14463 Abstract On 13 October 2017 the Department of Basic Education (DBE) published the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill (BELA Bill). The draft Bill aims to revise certain sections of the South African Schools Act 84 of 1996. The DBE gave education stakeholders a window period to make inputs on the proposed Bill. Over 5 000 submissions were received. On 27 and 28 January 2020 Ms Angie Motshekga (Minister of Basic Education) invited the educator unions and governing body federations to further consultations on the Bill. After further amendments the Bill was again circulated to the public in 2021. On 10 January 2022 the Bill was tabled in the National Assembly. In this article, the authors discuss school principals' (as education stakeholders) opinions on the proposed amendments with a specific focus on school admission and language policies. The article is grounded in the context of governance and management terms like the decentralisation and recentralisation of the authority and functions of principals and school governing bodies (SGBs). The research took the form of a qualitative case study using semi-structured interviews, a literature review and document analysis to gather data. The aim of the research was to explore the views of principals and non-educator stakeholders on these proposed changes to the current Schools Act. The question the research sought to answer was whether or not the principals thought that the proposed amendments would be beneficial to school management and governance in general. The data produced mixed results. Some education stakeholders were very critical of the proposed amendments to the Schools Act while other groups welcomed the proposed changes. Some principals felt that political agendas were the reason why government was rescinding (recentralising) some of the functions devolved to them in 1996 after the inception of democracy. They believed that recentralisation would impede their autonomy when they carried out their professional and governance duties (the duties delegated to principals) in partnership with their SGBs. The principals further indicated that should the BELA Bill be promulgated into law the current education system would regress to the Apartheid system of education. Other principals welcomed a more centralised governance approach where school leadership was dysfunctional and where SGBs provided no meaningful assistance to school principals. Keywords Centralising; government; cooperative governance; leadership; partnership.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most