An investigation into the effective functioning of the section 20 school funding system: The case of the Tshwane School Districts.
Matlhwale, Joseph Mantlongwane
Matlhwale, Joseph Mantlongwane
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Abstract
The South African school system mainly consists of private independent schools and public ordinary schools. Public schools are divided into Section 20 and Section 21 schools. Section 21 schools are financially self-managed, whilst Section 20 schools’ finances are centrally managed by their respective provincial education departments. The only means of income for Section 20 schools in South Africa is an annual fund allocation from the government, which is based on an annual “paper budget” submitted by each school. This study investigated the effective functioning of the Section 20 school funding system in the Tshwane North, Tshwane South and Tshwane West districts of the Gauteng Province in South Africa. The study used semi-structured questionnaires that were distributed to the principals of the targeted Section 20 schools and the relevant provincial government officials (PGO) of the three Tshwane districts. Based on the analysis of the questionnaires, results revealed that the functioning of the funding system of Section 20 schools, as perceived by the majority of the respondents, is not effective. Participants provided measures which could be taken by the department in order to ensure that the system functions properly. It should be noted that in April 2015, the Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Education in Gauteng, Mr. Panyaza Lesufi, took a decision to convert all Gauteng Section 20 schools to that of Section 21. Many of these schools do not possess the required financial management skills to manage their own funds. This research contributes to the debate as to whether the MEC made the right decision and whether this decision could be extrapolated to the rest of the country.
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Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Magister Technologiae: Cost and Management Accounting in the Department of Managerial Accounting and Finance Faculty of Economics and Finance at the Tshwane University of Technology.
Date
2015-01-02
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Tshwane University of Technology
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Keywords
School funding, Section 20, Education, Departments, Tshwane