Representative Council for Learners’ Perspectives on School Financial Management

Abstract

This paper focused on the involvement of representative council for learners in school financial management. The South African Schools Act mandates that learners from grade eight to twelve should be involved in school governing body of a public school however when it comes to school finances such learners are excluded and marginalised. The study was conducted in a rural school in KwaZulu-Natal.  This is a qualitative study coached within the critical paradigm that used focus group to generate data. Critical Discourse Analysis was employed to analyse data. The findings of this study suggest that Representative Council for Learners (RCL) are not happy in the manner they are treated when they are part of the School Governing Body (SGB).  As participants to the SGB they felt they lost time that should be dedicated to their studies. Learners also felt very strongly that their participation was to rubber stamp what older members of the SGB would have already decided where the learners had been excluded in the decision-making process. Moreover, RCLs suggested that they can make major contributions to the school budget should they be given the opportunity.

Keywords: school governing body, representative council for learners, learners’ voices, school financial management, school budget

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-8-13

Publication date:March 31^st 2020