A capability approach analysis to school governing bodies' experience of financial management

Abstract

School Governing Bodies (SGBs) must be financially capable, which is a significant aspect of managing school finances. The South African Schools Act No. 84 of 1996 (SASA) mandates principals and SGBs to manage school funds well. This suggests that they need to have the necessary knowledge and financial skills to ensure that funds are used effectively for the benefit of schools, yet literature shows they fail to do so. Given that SGBs struggle with the demands of managing school finances effectively, this study employed the capability approach (CA) framework created by Amartya Sen. The framework seeks to enhance people’s ability to function effectively to expand their capabilities and functioning until they have reason to value the lives they lead. Several individual and structural conversion factors contribute to issues of financial management in rural public schools. Such issues include lack of formal education, illiteracy, poor training, and lack of resources to enable them to contribute effectively to schools. This study sought to provide a CA analysis to SGBs’ experience of financial management in rural public primary schools. The findings showed that principals and SGBs wish to use their capabilities to contribute to and develop schools. However, they lack financial knowledge, proper training, good knowledge and usage of finance policies. The methodology used to implement the framework involved data collection through individual semi-structured interviews which were analyzed through deductive thematic analysis. Based on the findings, this study concludes that rural public schools are certainly faced with persistent gaps in financial literacy, poor training of the SGBs, lack of accountability and poor skills and knowledge to make informed choices concerning the development of schools. The findings highlighted that individual constraints play a major role on how school finances are managed in these school. The study further recommends continuous training for all the SGB members to enable them to carry out their duties successfully, enforce the implementation of finance policies in schools and for the Department of Education to normalise school visits to monitor and promote effective educational practices.