Die bestuurstaak van die skoolhoof van 'n gekompliseerde sekondêre skool in Natal ten opsigte van die administratiewe afdeling

Abstract

The head of a school is the principal. He is not only the person who makes decisions but he must also see that a high standard of education is maintained. Bigger schools and the growing complexity of the school as an organisation, have posed complicated problems for the principal in his management task, especially where it concerns the administrative section. This problem was posed in Chapter 1. The aim of this study was to find answers to the following problematic questions: - What is a complicated secondary school? - What is the management task of a principal of a complicated secondary school in connection with the administrative section? The research method has also been discussed in this chapter, namely a literary study and an empirical survey. The chapter ended with the discussion of the structure of the thesis. In Chapter 2 attention was given to the literary study to try and find answers to the above mentioned problematic questions. An in depth study of the essence of the complicated secondary school in Natal was made and afterwards a study was made of a few specific tasks of the principal in connection with the administrative section. These tasks incorporated the following: Office administration, information systems, school finances and physical facilities, each with its own sub-sections. The following chapter dealt with the empirical survey. The measuring instrument used, was a structured questionnaire which consisted of four sections. This questionnaire was first tested by means of a preliminary survey. Hereafter, the final questionnaire was sent to all the principals of the complicated secondary schools in Natal ( n = 16). Thirteen completed questionnaires were received and the response was processed by means of the "statistical Analysis System" computer program. The statistics that were obtained from this study were only descriptive statistics and were given as such. Important conclusions were, however, made from this study. This includes that the principal's task of management will be the same in all schools, but that the way in which he manages the school and the fulfilment of the tasks may differ, because it is determined by the management style of each individual principal. Another important conclusion which could be reached, deals with the role of the senior administrative clerk in the management and effectiveness of the administrative section. The principal should ensure the effectiveness of the administrative section's function by making optimal use of this clerk. Finally, for further studies, it could be recommended that the senior administrative clerk's position could perhaps be promoted to that of a member of the management team of a school.