Abstract
M.Ed.
The main aim of the inquiry looked at community education, in this regard being the
empowerment of school communities in effective and efficient running of schools for the
new education system adopted in South Africa. The introduction of the South African
School Act to meet the demands of the country's constitution, necessitates community
involvement for shared-decision making, and fully informed participation by all
stakeholders in the running of our schools. In empowering school communities, problems experienced by teachers, parents, learners, governing bodies relating to suspensions and expulsions of African learners were addressed, and an insight into stakeholders' roles was explicitly outlined. The contribution therefore, of this study, is the identification of sources of frustrations and troubles experienced in this regard. The findings provide school communities with a clear exposition of the roles and functions of stakeholders. Power implementation, in expulsion specifically, is clearly indicated to be on the Head of Education, which if perceived unfair can be appealed through the Member of the Executive Committee for Education in the Province. No management team, no governing body or a parent has the right to remove a learner from a school through whatever route — mutually agreed upon by other stakeholders — unless confirmation of that removal is from the HoD, but also with a placement of that learner into another school followed by a support structure created for him/her. All stakeholders will be aware of what the right of education refers to after reading through this research as recommendations clarified. Therefore, the field investigation clarified some of the typical problems about suspension and expulsion experienced by the research sample.