Abstract
M.Ed.
South Africa, together with the rest of the world, has the need for leaders
who are purposeful and have firm principles.
Natural leaders among pupils must be identified and they must be assisted
in accepting and fulfilling their call to leadership with skill and confidence.
The object of this study is an investigation into the character and nature
of the development of leadership in youth.
Youth leaders must be trained to manage pupil activities effectively.
It should never be a case of simply identifying the leaders and then
leaving them to themselves in their newly acquired positions. The youth
leaders remain dependent on support and therefore nave to be trained on
a continuous basis.
The youth finds himself in a unique situation which constitutes unique
problems. Due to these problems, the content of a leader development
program must be such that it creates an atmosphere in which the pupil
leaders will have the desire to think about and to be knowledgable as to
the problems of" their times. The content of a leadership development
program focuses on two levels, namely the moral and practical or physical
level.
The youth has a specific need to be accepted and should be studied and
considered in various educational relationships. Only when this has
taken place, will the youth be open to the development of his leadership
abilities.
Every teacher acts according to his/her specific leadership style. The
management style is actually part of the management leader and will
materialize as such in the way in which leadership is given. The pupil
leader will, therefore, also show a specific management style and this
must be considered in the development program ...