Abstract
M.Ed.
South Africa’s current transformation process has effected momentous policy changes that have been designed under extreme pressure of redesigning a whole society. The process of transforming the Education system has been characterised by the passing of new legislation, restructuring of management systems and the decentralisation to a school level authority to make decisions related to the allocation of resources.
Implementation problems arose when the policy has been misunderstood by managers at various levels of the department, or at school, perhaps because of insufficient explanation and socialisation from the National Department of Education and the Provincial Education Department.
The current financial climate in South Africa has resulted in the responsibility for the financing of education being devolved to the private sectors, particularly the parent and business communities of the institutions. Schools therefore have to generate more funds to supplement the resources supplied by the State to be administered and managed as school funds.
It is against the background of a fragile financial foundation for the funding of public education as well as the implementation problems experienced by various levels of the Education Department, that the remedy may then point to the development of awareness campaigns, or a rewording though not a redesign of policies. Therefore we need to look at the process of policy implementation from time to time in order to assess the degree of alignment with policy and effect various changes timeously in our attempt to fine-tune our systemic and individual capacities on an ongoing basis.
Chapter one outlines the content of the research study, the declaration of the problem, the objectives of the study and the clarification of the concepts.
Chapter two comprises of a thorough literature study which outlines the perspectives of various stakeholders regarding current financial management procedures in public schools in South Africa.
Chapter three outlines the research methodology that is used in this research study. A valuable method was used to gather research material for the study of financial management at public schools.
Chapter four is about the collection of information, its analyses and its interpretation. Themes and categories are identified and information analysed. Themes are also used as sub-categories during the analyses of the information.
Chapter five is the findings of the research study. Theoretical information from the research study was compared with information consolidated from questionnaires and interviews.
The last chapter consist of a summary, recommendations and the conclusion of the study.