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The management of school finances can be one of the most challenging of principals responsibilities, because for many it is an area in which they have little or no training or expertise. It is also likely that the elected members of the (school) governing body may be equally ill equipped for the task [Clark A; (2008; 278)].
Post-apartheid South Africa has been characterised by a shift from a highly centralised, top-down approach to education provisioning by the National Department of Education (DOE) to the devolution of powers to the Provincial Education Departments (PEDs) and down to the level of the school. Post-apartheid policy has shifted the emphasis (from redistributive policies) to less directly interventionist state policies which emphasise education growth in a context of fiscal constraint, a focus on decentralisation and cost saving … a shift of financial responsibility from public to private sources, and a growth in the notion of partnerships and voluntarism [Kallaway P; (2002; 188)]. Kallaway P (1997; 64) states that education (now) becomes a provincial competence subject to a national policy framework. The “new” South African state has deployed a complex range of discourses – the specificity seems to lie in the linkage of redistributive strategies with policies designed for a context of financial stringency (ibid; 65).
It is against this background of on the one hand the perceived inability and/or lack of expertise on the part of school principals and school governors and on the other hand the reductions in the states expenditure on education that this chapter explores the role of public school principals and school governing bodies in the management of schools’ finances.
The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education (KZNDoE) comprises of twelve Education Districts (as depicted in figure 1) grouped for management purposes into three clusters of four districts each – namely the Coastal Cluster (comprising of the Ilembe, Pinetown, Umlazi and Port Shepstone Districts); the Midlands Cluster (comprising of the Umzinyathi, Othukela, Umgungundlovu and Kokstad Districts) and the Northern Cluster (comprising of the Amajuba, Vryheid, Obonjeni and Empangeni Districts). The Pinetown Education District is in the Coastal Cluster and covers the western and northern half of the eThekwini Municipality.
Source: KZNDoE-2008
Although largely urban in nature, there are some underdeveloped rural and peri-urban areas at the periphery. The district manages five hundred and eighty (580) schools – five hundred (500) are public ordinary schools; eleven (11) are LSEN schools, that is schools for Learners with Special Education Needs; five (5) are public pre-primary schools and sixty four (64) are independent schools. The direct management of these 580 schools is the responsibility of an Education Circuit Office, each of which is responsible and accountable for +/- 145 schools. There are four (4) Education Circuit Offices in the Pinetown Education District:
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