Intense management of sinking secondary schools to convert them into moving education institutions

Abstract

This paper examines what it takes to emerge with a caring and moving education institution from the initially sinking one whose scholar results were deplorably low from the perspectives of teachers serving in the School Governing Body (SGB) and the Representative Council of Learners (RCL). This study has been motivated by a variety of discourses on scholar performance, the majority of which are centred on the perspectives of external education stakeholders other than teachers and learners serving on a secondary school's governing council. The paper is conceptual and empirical in nature while following the qualitative research paradigm. The question guiding this paper is: how long does it take a sinking secondary school to be turned around into a caring and a moving secondary school? Narrative enquiry and interviewing techniques were employed to generate data. Six secondary schools from one of the circuits in Waterberg region, Limpopo Province, South Africa, were conveniently sampled for this study. Only members of the School Governing Body's teacher components and chairpersons of the Representative Council of Learners (RCL) from each of the six sampled secondary schools participated in the study. Findings revealed that firstly, caring and moving schools do not batter trust with stakeholders. Secondly, caring and moving schools experience minimal derelict of teaching duties by educators. Thirdly, caring and moving schools witness less of derelict of learning responsibility by scholars. Fourthly, there is subjugation of the culture of laziness in caring and moving secondary schools. Fifthly, a policy of remedial lessons for struggling scholars, is upheld in caring and moving schools.  Lastly, caring and moving schools experience less of gaping leadership void in their ranks. The researcher recommends for sinking secondary schools to share warm disposition and be friendly with everyone to successfully become caring and moving secondary schools.