Abstract
M.Ed. (Educational Management)
The South African school system has been in a state of flux since the first democratic election in 1994, with numerous changes that have included the introduction of Outcomes Based Education (OBE) by the then Professor Kader Asmal, the Revised National Curriculum Statement (NCS) by his successor, Mrs. Naledi Pandor, and recently the introduction of the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) (Department of Basic Education, 2011). All the mandated changes were informed by international tests such as the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS), but a major challenge facing the policymakers is how to manage the implementation of the change process. Emotional intelligence is one of the tools that can be used to manage the change process as it provides school managers, at the micro- implementation level, with the knowledge and skills to manage possible resistance. It can be nurtured and is valuable for a leader to possess as a way of maximising positive behaviour (Gutstein, 2004:29-30).
Results from South Africa’s participation in 2006 in TIMSS and PIRLS, conducted by the International Association for the Education of Education Achievement (IEA) for Grades 4 and 5 learners, ranked South Africa far below other African countries. The 2011, Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEC) report 3 reveals that South Africa had slipped further to seventh from the bottom. More recently, in the 2012PIRLS, South African learners achieved an score of 460 against an international average of 500 (Rademeyer, 2012), whilst in the TIMMS South African learners’ came second last in Mathematics out of 45 countries that participated, with a score of 352 compared to the international midpoint of 500. In Science, South African learners came last with an average of 332 compared to a midpoint of 500 (Rademeyer, 2012).