The governing of individual schools - school governance as it is known in South Africa only began in the early 1990’s.  It coincided with the political transition to a post-apartheid South Africa.  Hence the policies and structures for school governance were influenced by the local political context as well as the international trends. These trends related to the self-management of schools in which community involvement, decentralised decisions and decentralisation of funds were the driving forces.  This decentralisation of decision-making can be closely associated with neo-liberal approach because the neo-liberalism emphasise decentralisation of decision-making, and less direct influence of central government at local education settings (Olssen and Peters 2005).  This decentralisation of decision-making to the local school was also officially implemented in all schools in South Africa with the promulgation of the South African Schools Act of 1996.

This article focuses on school governance in South Africa against the international phenomenon of self-managing schools.  It is therefore important to acknowledge that the self-managing school system was operationalised in a different socio-economic, political and developmental system.  The broad functions and responsibilities of the South African governing bodies are not dissimilar to comparable bodies in the UK, New Zealand and Australia namely drafting policies, budgeting, support and maintenance (Farrell and Law 1999, Robinson, Ward and Timperley 2003) but the political and socio economic diversity in communities and therefore in schools (see Table 2) are dissimilar to most of the Western countries. 

The implementation of self managing schools in South Africa is rather a democratic or political and financially driven approach and not as such an instrument to provide and improve the quality education for all.  Although a governing body is still the functionary of the school as the justice person (Department of Education, section 15), governing bodies are under pressure to comply with all the duties and responsibilities in a performance driven culture.  The argument advances from the premise of the values and aims for school governance as stated in the Preamble of the South African Schools Act of 1996.  The emphasis is then on the democratic or political aims for school governance but also the aim to improve quality education for all. The article will also deliberate the parental governor’s ability and experience to perform the duties as well as the socio-economic context of the parent community as determining factors in the performance of governing bodies. 

The research question is: What are pressures on governing bodies to support schools to provide high quality education in a democratic society?  The purpose of the article is therefore to analyse whether governing bodies are able to deliver on the expectations from the South African Schools Act of 1996 to be an important role player in the democratisation of the South African society and to assist in the improvement of quality education for all.   

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