Exploring the governance role of learner-members of school governing bodies

Abstract

This qualitative study was conducted to “explore the governance role of learner-members in the School Governing bodies in schools situated in North West Province, Dr Kenneth Kaunda District in the JB Marks municipality”. The descriptive phenomenological study was conducted by using twelve learner-members in the SBGs of six different schools through purposeful sampling. To ensure the variety of the schools, three schools were fee-paying schools and the other three schools were non-fee-paying schools. Each school provided two participants. Data were generated by face-to-face in-depth interviews. Data generated in this study were analysed following the six thematic basic analysis by Nowell et al. (2017). The findings indicated that learner-members are recognised as members of SGBs, but they only have one year to participate in school governance because they have less responsibilities and accountability in the SGB structure. The South African Schools Act 84 of 1996 (Republic of South Africa, 1996) is not clear about functions of the learner-members of SGBs. Furthermore, some of the learner-members were not involved in SGBs decision-making processes of the SGBs due to their legal status of being minors. This study recommends the amendment of section 20 of the SA Schools Act (84 of 1996) to provide a clearer legal determinant of each SGB member in a school. The study further recommends that SGBs’ learner-members should be elected in a two-year cycle serving in SGBs and they must be provided an accredited certificate after completion of their two-year cycle.