Abstract
D.Phil.
The government’s educational reforms since 1994 have focused on access, equity, redress, quality, efficiency and democracy. Redressing historical imbalances and achieving equity are central policy components in attempts to restructure South African education. This aspiration is demonstrated in many education policies, such as the post-provisioning norms, rationalisation and redeployment of educators and non-teaching staff, management of school fees, the functioning of governing bodies and the National Norms and Standards for School Funding policy, and acceptable interventions. While inequalities in resource allocation from the state have been removed, inequalities persist for a number of reasons, including the inability of parents to pay fees, the unavailability of qualified educators in some schools, and unfavourable learner-educator ratios, especially in black schools and public schools in general. This research was conducted in an effort to investigate the implications of the National Norms and Standards for School Funding policy on equity in public schools in the Tshwane West District of the Gauteng Province. A quantitative research methodology was used to elicit the perceptions of educators and School Management Teams with regard to the implications of the NNSSF policy on equity in public schools. Based on the three first order factors derived from the first analytic procedure, namely, effective financial management, the management of equity issues and access to educational resources, substantial government subventions to the education system was undertaken. However, the implementation of the National Norms and Standards for School Funding policy has not been fully realised because inequalities based on race, class and gender still persist not only in the education system, but in the South African society as a whole.