Caught between a rock and hard place! School district Circuit Managers' perspectives regarding the state of education in their circuits

Author(s):

Bongani D. Bantwini(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

11. Educational Improvement and Quality Assurance

Format:

Paper

Session Information

11 SES 04 B, Paper Session

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-24

09:00-10:30

Room:

OB-E0.32

Chair:

Jana Poláchová Vaštatková

Contribution

This paper examines and discusses school district Circuit Managers’ perspectives regarding the state and quality of education in their respective circuits. The study focused on the following questions:

(1) what is the state of education in the selected circuits?

(2) How can the state of education be enhanced to ensure basic quality education for all the learners?

This paper is premised on the notion that education is a complex system embedded in a political, cultural and economic context (United Nations Children’s Fund, 2000). The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF, 2000) state that the imperative of bearing in mind the education’s systemic nature which they caution that its dimensions are interdependent, influencing each other in way that are sometimes unforeseeable. Thus, the quality of education is recognized as a prerequisite for achieving the fundamental goal of equity, as a prime determinant of whether Education for All is achieved.

Method

The reported study was conducted in five school districts in a large province in South Africa. The participants were Circuit Managers, District Directors and Chief Director purposively sampled based on their experience regarding education issues in their circuits, districts and the province. From the participants, there were 10 Circuit Mangers, all racially black. There were 5 males and 5 females and their age ranging between 45-60 yrs. Data was collected through semi-structured interview and focus group interview. For both the District Director and Chief Director, semi-structure interviews were conducted while focus group interviews were conducted will the Circuit Managers, with groups not exceeding three members. Each focus group interview lasted for 2-2:30 minutes while the semi-structured interviews lasted between 2-3:30 minutes. All the interviews were audio recorded with the permission of the participants. The qualitative data coding and analysis followed an iterative process as suggested by Miles and Huberman (1994:9). These authors describe various steps that include reading and affixing codes to the transcript notes while noting reflections or other remarks in the margins; sorting and sifting through the materials to identify similar phrases, relationships between variables, patterns, themes, distinct differences between subgroups, and common sequences...

Expected Outcomes

Findings reveal that the state and quality of basic education in the selected circuits was unsatisfactory due to a myriad of issues including low teacher morale in schools, high number of teacher vacancies, very weak school principals, high rate of teacher absenteeism, schools lacking of confidence on the school district and the neglected primary school level. I argue and conclude that provision of good quality basic education is essential in South Africa as it ensures that all learners have an equal opportunity to succeed in life, especially those from previously disadvantaged areas.

References

Department of Basic Education (2010). Education for All. 2009 Country report: South Africa. Pretoria, Republic of South Africa. Department of Basic Education. (2010). The national policy for an equitable provision of an enabling school physical teaching and learning environment. Pretoria, South Africa. Hershberg T. (1996). Human capital development: America’s greatest challenge. Annals of the American Academy of Political Science 544 (3): 43–51. OECD (2009). Creating effective teaching and learning environments: First results from TALIS, OECD, Retrieved from: www.oecd.org/edu/school/43023606.pdf. Retrieved on: 18 September 2015. OECD (2005). Teachers matter: Attracting, developing and retaining effective teachers. Education and Training Policy. Retrieved from: http://www.oecd.org/edu/school/34990905.pdf. Retrieval on: 3 October 2015. The Presidency. (2011). National development plan: Vision for 2030. National Planning Commission. Pretoria, Republic of South Africa. United Nations Children Fund (2000). Defining quality in education. A paper presented by UNICEF at the meeting of the International Working Group on Education, Florence, Italy.

Author Information

Bongani D. Bantwini (presenting / submitting)

North West University, Potchefstroom South Africa

Natural sciences and technlogy education

Potchefstroom

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