Home schooling as an open-learning educational challenge in South Africa

Despite current legislation which makes provision for collaboration between the public school sector and home schooling, it appears that much can still be done to move towards a closer partnership. Consequently I investigated the possibilities of such a liaison. A literature review on the nature of home schooling in general was conducted as background to a qualitative investigation on the views of parents, educators and other role players of home schooling within the South African context. The findings showed that home schooling was an open learning educational system which provided opportunities to those learners who wished to participate, irrespective of the possible disadvantages. In conclusion it was found that co-operation between the education authorities and home schoolers was in the best interests of the individual's right to learn, and a symbiotic relationship between the two could benefit both of them.South African Journal of Education Vol. 27 (1) 2007: pp. 83-10

The right to lawful administrative action : a public administration perspective

Defining lawfulness in all its dimensions and knowing its true meaning in the context of public administration is no easy task. The research on which this article is based, explains the practical functioning of the requirements for lawful administrative action and decision-making. The aim of improving an understanding of the requirements for lawful administrative action and decision-making is to produce a set of guidelines to be used by public officials. The frequent judicial intervention into public administration by means of judicial review of administrative action has produced inputs, which gradually facilitates an incremental understanding of the requirements for lawfulness. The said inputs will probably have a positive guiding effect on the execution of administrative action and decision-making. The requirements for lawful administrative action have the potential not only to enhance accountability in public administration but also to enrich the administrative justice system

The influence of school culture and school climate on violence in schools of the Eastern Cape Province

This article reports on research undertaken about the influence of school culture and school climate on violence at schools in the Eastern Cape. An adapted California School Climate and Survey – Short Form (CSCSS-SF), which was used as the data-collection instrument, was completed by 900 Grade 10 to 12 learners. With the assistance of Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient, it was found that the better the school culture and school climate are at a school, the lower the levels of school violence. On the other hand, a lack of school safety contributed to learners experiencing higher levels of violence at schools. The results of hierarchy regression analyses indicated that school culture and school climate can be used to explain a significant percentage of variance in school violence. The f 2 values indicate that, with the exception of two aspects of the variance physical and verbal harassment,the results did not have any practical value. The article concludes with a few suggestions on how the results can be used to address school violence.Keywords: CSCSS-SF; school climate; school culture; school violenc

Multiplicity in public policy implementation

Failures in service delivery or policy outcomes are in some instances ascribed to single and linear causes. Similarly, the successes of policy outcomes are seemingly due to one success factor. This article attempts to indicate the multiple factors influencing implementation outcomes. The emphasis of multiplicity provides a clearer understanding of real policy implementation. Investigation into multiple policy actors and the relation with structures and outcomes provide a meaningful perspective on policy implementation

Policies and poverty in Southern Africa

Policies can address poverty, but policies are not a guarantee to eradicate poverty. Many factors figure into the poverty policy scene. Government’s understanding of poverty, the particular type of poverty and the environment will naturally determine the nature of the policies. In some instances policies are blamed for the failure to address poverty, but at the same time the type of poverty makes it cumbersome for government to address all types of poverties with a single policy. This article is going to take an overview of policies and poverty in a Southern Africa context. Poverty remains one of the biggest challenges in Africa. The poorer one is, the more difficult it is to escape poverty, despite the policy of government. There are quite a number of different policies addressing poverty, but there still seems to be a lack of a single holistic policy to address poverty in all its facets. The question is whether the South African poverty policies are overly optimistic or is poverty just too vast a problem

Educator training challenges in implementing the national curriculum statement policy

Curriculum change aimed at improving the education system in order to promote quality education is generally regarded as a positive move in a country that has undergone a political transition. This is the case because education is a prerequisite for sustainable development in any country, and South Africa is no exception. The new South African curriculum set out in the National Curriculum Statement 2002 Policy was designed to redress the educational imbalances that were prominent in South Africa’s past by providing quality education. However, the success of any new curriculum depends on the provision of training to public school educators by capable and knowledgeable trainers regarding the correct implementation of the new curriculum policy. This article highlights some of the challenges faced in training educators. The Vhembe District in the Limpopo Department of Education was selected as a case study for this article.nf201

The role of traditional authorities in the implementation of Integrated Development Planning Policy (IDP) in Vhembe District Municipality, Limpopo province

The South African post-apartheid government attempted to integrate traditional authorities and local government. The concept is to promote co-operative and inclusive government among rural communities and contemporary local government systems. Government believes traditional authorities have a role to play in democracy, particularly with regard to community service delivery in these societies and democracy particularly with regard to community service delivery. However, this attempt has encountered several constraints. This article identifies those factors that are constraining this attempt. Fifteen traditional leaders who represent rural communities in municipalities in the Vhembe District Municipality were interviewed through a semi-structured questionnaire to measure their perception with regard to their role in local government. In addition, representatives of traditional leaders’ structures, municipal managers, municipal IDP managers, municipal mayors and the Vhembe District Municipal Mayor were also interviewed. The results of this study reveal that perceptions on the role played by traditional leaders in the local government IDP processes vary considerably. The results revealed that perceptions on their participation (45,5%), involvement (45,25%), submission of views (41,2%), and participation in ward committees (4,8%), council attendance (90,0%), playing a role in the proceedings (50,0%), submission of IDP proposals (38,7%) and consultation by local government offi cials (93,2%) were indeed very diverse. The overall finding is that the real participation by traditional leaders in the IDP process is still relatively limited.nf201