Abstract
M.Ed.
The researcher has been a teacher for the past seventeen years and has taught in five
secondary schools. At none of these schools was a financial meeting ever arranged
in order to inform parents as to the financial standing of the school.
School committees, as they were previously known, consisted mostly of illiterate
parents whose duties were mostly to "rubberstamp" the principal's decisions. Since holding our first democratic non-racial elections in this country, people,
especially from rural black areas, are obsessed with the concepts of transparency
and accountability. Most parents are now aware that principals are accountable
towards them in respect of the utilisation of school funds. In view of the questions formulated above the aims of this research project are to:
- investigate the perceptions of school principals regarding their accountability
towards parents on financial matters; and
- determine which components should be involved in the training of principals in
school financial management;
- devise a strategy to motivate parents to be financially supportive towards the
school.
in view of the preceding problem and aim statements, the method envisaged in
order to research the problem of accountability of secondary school principals
towards parents will now be discussed.