Principals' views on challenges of their school governance roles

Abstract

This article explores principals’ views regarding governance challenges they experience at

schools. We conducted focus group interviews with primary and secondary school

principals, purposely and conveniently selected from township schools in two Gauteng

Province’s districts. We found that principals were challenged mostly by having to balance

their roles as ex officio school governing body members and their roles as bona fide

members of school governing bodies (SGBs). Other challenges found were confirmatory of other school governors’ views as reported in numerous studies, related to among others, the specialist nature of governance functions, poor training of school governors, difficulties associated with governor recruitment and unwillingness of parents to serve as governors. There is therefore a need for a re-clarification of the principals’ roles, in terms of both their ex officio and bona fide SGB membership with regard to governance in the context of the functioning of the schools. This should include a review of the governing body structure, the re-allocation of specialist functions, customized and needs-based training of school governors and aspects relating to the general functioning of SGBs.